Just wondering what it felt like when you first got off the plane in Australia with your kids and bags standing at the exit of the airport following the whole emigration process. Was it like wow oh my god, or s##t what have we done?
The wife and I were talking about this the other night and it will seem strange to.......not have a set of keys!

Was so jet lagged by the time we arrived, the immediate sensation was one of relief - that and a desire to get the hell out of the terminal building and have a ciggie. Next morning, waking up and realising we'd made it was a nice feeling though - and being an aussie citizen by descent I didn't have to do the visa thing, so I imagine the feelings would be intensified somewhat.

Thats true... no keys !

I like that idea

Yep, exactly how I felt too, right down to the ciggie bit!. I remember thinking that I'd landed in the wrong city though, it was nothing like I thought it would be.

We were so over tired we were giddy. Like Wendy, though, it felt nothing like what we expected.

It was like I had come home.

Buzzy

I went straight from Arrivals to the Royal Brisbane Hospital to visit my pregnant future wife who was admitted with high blood pressure.

And the madness hasn't really stopped since.

I have been in the position of doing this twice.

I am an Austrlian who moved to England in 2003.

It was really wierd to be stading in Heathrow with no keys, no phone, no address, no car, no job, no nothing - just me, my guitar case and a suitcase full of clothes.

We moved back to Australia in August last year....

Same sorta thing.... although it did really feel like I was home.

I don't think many people will think 'wow', not after such a long flight.

We were just so tired. Took us days to come round. Then it felt like a holiday for a month or so. Then when we bought a house and bills came flooding in it felt like reality.

A bit deflated, partly due to jet lag and that there were no fanfares when we went through customs!!!!!!
jacqui

did some travelling en route so it just felt like being on holiday but when we landed in Tasmania it hit me, I went into a deep depression and just wanted to get back on the plane and go home.

A non-event

We'd done a 'dry run' 6 months previously (when we came out here to validate our visas) so in a way we knew what to expect.

Because of the above, and the fact that we knew where we'd be living and working, there was a sense of 'we're back!' as opposed to 'we've arrived!'

It was an overcast, early Saturday morning. No fanfares, no bunting, no welcome to Brisbane signs - just a slightly numb feeling, mild trepidation and the knowledge that a lot of hard work lay ahead of us.

I felt tired, smelly and a bit scared to be honest. Scared because I had no return ticket and no money to buy one.

The keys thing is so true! We've just bought our first car here and finally I have somewhere to hang my bottle opener

It's very disconcerting at first, like going on holiday - but not, as you're looking at everywhere like it's supposed to be home - but it isn't.

We travelled round when we first got here and when we got back to Adelaide after 5 weeks that was a lovely feeling, that was the wow moment. I think you'll get both feelings at different times and to different degrees but that's part of the adventure. As long as there's more 'wow' than 's##t' you'll be fine

I remember looking out of the plane window as it flew over and into Melbourne in the dark thinking "This is my new home". Very exciting.

Then wheeling my case down St.Kilda Road seeing the MCG and having those fake parrots fly past me in Botanical Gardens I was just in awe.

10 months later and I still feel the same - this is the place to be, no mistaking!