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Down Under, Men At Work
G’day from Melbourne and a Happy New Year! Yes, we finally made it to Oz.
We left Kuala Lumpur on the 17th December after wasting a day killing time in a shopping mall before heading to the airport for our night flight with Air Asia. We had decided we didn’t want to smoke in Australia so used the airport smoking room to have our last cigarettes. The room was so disgusting and smelly, it was the ideal place to convince us it was the right thing to do.
The final security check at the boarding gate was an interesting one, the passenger in front of us was carrying a knuckle duster in his bum bag!! He seemed most confused as to why it was confiscated, as if it was perfectly normal to take such an item onto a plane! Thankfully, the flight itself was uneventful, we even managed to bag 3 seats each so we could lie down and get a few hours sleep. However, the best bit was watching dawn break as we flew over South Australia, giving us the first glimpse of our new playground.
Clearing Australian immigration and customs couldn’t have been more straightforward – it was all automated. No awkward questions, no checking the cleanliness of our shoes and no searching our bags for food. We can only hope they are so laid back with Mario!
So then we were met in arrivals by the lovely Danielle – our first physical contact with family for 6 months and it was great to see her, although we were in a bit of a daze after such a long journey. We were soon at Simon and Danielle’s beautiful hilltop “ranch” in horse country about an hour East of Melbourne. Here we met the gorgeous, bouncing baby boy Barnaby, D’s Mum and Dad, Josanne and Chris, 3 dogs, 2 horses, 2 alpacas and when he got home from work, cousin Simon!
It’s been really nice to be welcomed into a family home and we’re very grateful for their amazing hospitality, especially as they’ve got so much on their plates with a now 12 week old baby and so much to do around the home and 20 odd acres. Due to the rescheduled shipping dates, we are without Mario for about 2 weeks longer than we expected, we hope we are not overstaying our welcome!!
In an attempt to repay some of the hospitality, we have been trying to help out by gardening and helping with the collection and stacking of over 600 hay bales! This has been very tiring, showing how unfit we have both become whilst travelling, and has motivated us to ensure we find time to do some proper regular exercise in the future. Digging around in the garden and being out in the fields has made us very aware of the dangers of the notorious Australian wildlife. Protected with boots and gloves, we have been constantly on guard and extremely wary when moving stones, standing in long grass and reaching under bushes. So far we have only seen a few Huntsman spiders and Caroline has been stung by a Bull Ant, luckily no snakes yet!
On the plus side, we are enjoying the cuter side of Oz wildlife, spotting kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas, wombats and emus. On top of this, there is the constant soundtrack of laughing kookaburras, squawking cockatoos and parrots, and magpies that sound like R2D2! One day we took a trip to Phillip Island to see the Penguin Parade. This was an incredible sight where, at dusk, hundreds of little penguins come out of the sea and run across the beach to their burrows in the sand dunes to feed their chicks.
Christmas Day was a typically Australian affair with the turkey cooked on the BBQ, dinner eaten alfresco shielded from the hot sun by a large parasol and then a dip in the pool! It was lovely to spend the day with family and also catch up with the folks back home on Skype. On New Year’s Eve Simon and D hosted a BBQ and pool party, with plenty of wine and beer, which for us was a good opportunity to pick people’s brains as to ‘must visit’ destinations in Oz. 11 o’clock the next morning we watched the London New Year celebrations live on TV, which was a bit surreal.
The saying in Melbourne is ‘you get 4 seasons in one day’ and that has certainly been the case. From day-to-day the max temperature can change almost 20 degrees and since we’ve been here, we’ve had highs over 40 and overnight lows of 6! The changeable climate and the hilly countryside make it feel much like home and we can see why the early settlers chose here. We have visited such places nearby as Cheltenham, Sandringham, Brighton and Cowes, making it feel a real home-from-home but on a much bigger, cleaner and warmer scale.
It feels great to finally be here, the aim was always to be in Melbourne for Christmas and we did it. Now we just have to wait to see what happens with Mario – he’s due in on the 7th. He’s currently heading towards Sydney having stopped at Brisbane.
Finally, congratulations to our WebMaster Andrew and his lovely wife Lisa on the birth of their son, Thomas William.
HooRoo