gina and danny

Hi to all, dont know if this is the right place to post this but just thought that now i have a minute to myself ( kids summer holidays are manic! ) i would share our autralian reccie with you guys, here goes....

sorry if this is long winded!!!

we flew from manchester to hong kong to melbourne
well the airport at manchester was a disaster oh had his wallet stolen which meant a horrible flight as we couldnt get the credit cards sorted and the car hire that we did over the internet wouldnt let us have the car in melbourne because we didnt have the credit card to hold it against so all in all the way there was a nightmare, we had to get oh mum to fax her credit card details over to aus which took time so we didnt leave the airport at melbourne till around 11.30pm

we then decided to have a drive around melbourne ( me oh and cam the little one hes 7)at night as we were all so wide awake, i said that i had heard the front along st kilda was meant to be nice at night so we went there,
Warning do not take young children near st kilda at night even in the car,
it was wall to wall prostitutes!!!
so off we went to our accomodation at the best western, nice staff,
the morning was dull and cold and then to top it all off it started raining(well it was middle may),so we decided to go to the aquarium at melbourne, it was excellent and the simulator thay have there is good, cam loved the sharks etc, melbourne the city is very nice but not al big as i had expected it to be the people were nice but not overly friendly, that night we were woken by a group of lads above us having a party which then erupted on to street with them arguing with passers bay, it all got sorted though and they went quiet for around 4am:curse::curse::curse:
well another day and more rain and cold weather,cameron was starting to think that all it did in australia was rain,we decided to look around the outskirts of melbourne today as we could stay dry in the car
we looked around moorabin and some other places i cant remeber but i did think that it looked very similar to america.
the next day we did the zoo, what an amazing ezprience i have never been to a zoo like it we all had an excellent day and it was definatley the highlight so far,
Well weve decided that weve had enough of melboune after just 4 days so we booked flights upto brisbane,where we can collect oh credit card as 45oo times ( expat member) had kindly let us have it posted to his address.
the flight to brisbane was lovely virgin blue and when we got there we could see why everyone raves about it,
our first impressions was wow its so warm,
we went to our accomodation at slacks creek about half way between brisbane and the gold coast,
i have noticed straight away that the people here seem so much more friendly. first day was spent sorting out the credit card and just getting settled in cameron met a new friend which was great.and me and danny also met some great people that we are now friends with,,the strange thing was that up here there was a drought so we had to be carefull about water consumption

day2: we had breakfast at the coffee club which is delicious, we use the one at the hyperdome shopping center which is crammed full of shops but i couldnt see anything i liked there i guess tatstes are bit different in aus
Then up to the sunshine coastwe went through the glass house mountains which are beautiful and also took a walk through the great australian bush on our way to sunshine beach, it was so pretty and hot(thank you god!!)
In the evening we wathched the state of origin match(which is a big thing in queensland) its rugby league( they call it footy! i know its just wrong isnt it) queensland won 25 to nsw 18.

Day 3; we drove around greater brisbane we seen a huge kangaroo, we went to ipswich and (people dont bite my head off) i didnt like it as much as the other places we had seen, it was a little weird, we had fish supper for tea from a place in shailer park it was v.nice,
another lovely warm evening.

day 4 went to the koala reserve in daisy hills we waited all day to see a koala in the trees you think that in aus you will see alot of koalas but you dont you here them at night sometimes and they make the most horrible screechy groaning sounds
we also got surrounded by wallabies at the park whilst having a picnic, they were so friendly and one even tried jumping onto dannys knee!!

Day 5; today we were invited to a barbecue at 4500 times we met other people there that were very friendlycam made ore friendsand also learnt how to fart through a straw under his armpit..they went in the pool and a great day was had by all.

day 6;
we drove to bullimba ( very very nice area ) then got the seacat ferry into brisbane city, this is an excellent way to see the city and so cheap to,the marklets at south bnk ( ithink) are reaaly good half the price what they charge at the airport,we walked over victotria bridge and goowill bridge and then the botanical gardens which were beatiful,

day 7: today we are looking at houses in tannah marreh cornubia and shailer park, the houses over in aus are so big and you get so much land with them aswell but we couldt find out alot about the actual prices of some of the houses as most are sold by auction.

day 8: surfers paradise, was not as nice as sunshine coast but we still loved it, it rained alot today,, hurray!! they neede the rain, the ocean was so warm it was like stepping in a bath, we played beach ctricket, and had a good day full of fun.

I will continue this post later cos i got to take the little man to the park now as promised,

just a ew little things though,

i never realised that it goes dark in queensland at 5pm every night its like someone just switches the light off
there are not many pubs in the suburbs, they dont sell beer in supermarkets you have to go to bottle shops or drive throughs which all seem to close at 8-9pm

marvinc

Wow, what a start to your holiday glad it went well from then!

Thanks for the reccie report

Up To Late

Thanks for the great post. I'm looking forward to the rest of your story!

I agree with your comment about someone just switching the light off at 5pm. I think we find it strange because when it's warm in the UK we have long evenings.

Most Aussies get around the bottle shop prob by having a stockpile. LOL. Also the Coles supermarket often has a bottle shop attached.

ozlord

Theres lots of nice places an hour or two outside Melbourne you should visit next time, like the great ocean road, the Dandenong ranges, Grampians, Snowy mountains, Gippsland etc.

brissydeb

Lovely post, look forward to your update!

Debbie

ozzieclare2b

ovely post, cant wait to hear the rest x clare

andrew63

Nice post!
The 3 areas you are looking at to live was the same choice we made.
Living in Tanah Merah and working in Bulimba.
If you need any advice on the area etc, can probably help.

Andrew

gina and danny

Im back.

well i begin where i think i left.

day9: went to the hyperdome this morning cam bought a new rugby ball,a cowboys one he really likes that jonothan thurston guy that plays for them also got "walking in a straight line" cd that seems to be on every radio station to remind us of our time in aus,
we went to redland bay its a very nice area with a harbour and all we found a lovely shop there that sold cooked whole chickens and mash potatoes and roast veg and nice gravy which if your a gravy lover youll appreciate as the stuff in aus isnt that nice!!
we also saw fruit bats tonight i couldnt get over the size of them they are huge

day 10: Tambourine mountain today,you can see out along way at the top and the views are nice but seen as though i not a wine lover or antique person i didnt stay long, there is a quaint tes shop there though that is okay. cam got bored easily here, but the drive up is awesome it has beautiful rainforests that are good for a walk.

day 11: back to surfers paradise to learn boogy boarding,
WARNING!!!:curse: Always make sure that you check where you are in the sea. i swear i was swimming out in a straight line between the safw swim flags when all of a sudden i couldnt swim back in i looked to see where danny and all the other people were and realisedthat i had swam out right and been pulled out of the safe area, well as you can see i survived, after the lifegurd getting on the tannoy and shouting instructions to me which i kept cursing as its not so simple when your stranded, the most embarrasing bit was when he shouted just swim with your arms not your legs followed by now put your feet down, i thought he must be having a laugh but sure enough i put my feet down and the water was onljust near my shoulder
you see i had just swam off a ledge, needless to say we left the beach pretty soon after that,

day 12: well we spent the day in brisbane town followed by wathching wales v wallabies at the suncorp, wales played rubbish but we still cheered for them i was suprised at what a lovely atmosphere it was all fans chatting and drinking together, it was brilliant.

day 13: warner brothers movie world, with 4500 times and his family, it was the best experience ever its for adults aswell as kids a great family day out.
you gret to see all the characters and theres a real mixture of rides and the gift shops are really cheap, its definately not to be missed.

Day 14 back to surfers and yes i went in the sea, oh can i just say i found it a little unerving when cameron asked why they have used needles box in the toilets along the beach front ( i myself think its a good idea keeps the streets clean), we saw the meter maids in the shopping center i am sure that made dannys day

Day 15: kart racing at kingston race track, cameron got a rookie cert and danny had fun too, kingston itself (sorry if i offend anyone) is a major dump, i mean i grew up on a council estate in south manchester but even i wouldnt want to walk around kingston.
Later we went to dinner with 4500 times and his family( they were stars) they took us to the norman hotel which they advertise as brisbanes worst vegetarian resteraunt, and theyre proud of it, its a huge steak house type of thing. tonight it poured it down, and i mean it was like someone had turned a huge tap on in the sky,

Day 16: time to go home today we flew back to melbourne then headed for heathrow.

My opinions on various things:

People: were on the whole very nice, i didnt meet one arrogant person the whole time there.

Driving: sorry but the aussies just cant drive they never revesre into a car parking space they cant merge(dont think they know what that means), and they dont use the lanes on the motorways for anything they undertake overtake go fast in the slow lane go slow in the fast lane.

weather: melbourne was a bit chilly but it was autumn and it looked like autumn there which was nice as i like my seasons, brisbane was pleasant.

Shopping: i thought some things were quite expensive but on the whole its quite similar to here,

eating out: there are loads of places to eat out and we actually thought that if you lived in aus it would be cheaper to eat out or take away rather than cook yourself.

crime: we didnt notice anything bad whilst we were there but there are an awful lot of road accidents everyday.

On the whole melbourne and brisbane are great places and we loved them both but brisbane felt alot more relaxed we loved it there and didnt want to have to come back home, cameron especially misses it.
its well worth the visit before deciding to emmigtrate i would advise anyone to do it because had we not visited i would have wanted to live in melbourne but now thanks to our visit we can see how much we all liked brissie.

Thank you for reading my post,

bye bye i am off to wash the dog now ( i get all the good jobs in this house!!)

Jamesfam

I really enjoyed reading your posts. Thanks for that. Have you made your mind up about emigrating now?

Clare

gina and danny

yeah were definately going now and the good news is that oh job has just been put on the modl, guess its just a matter of time now, and you??

Buzzy--Bee

This is the best bit of your reccie!

Buzzy

gina and danny

hey you should try it ive never heard a fake trump like it in my life

the4ofus

SOunds like you had fun Get on with filling in that visa application now and get back there.

Lynn xx

cinderella

Great post

4500 Times

Hey Gina

You should hear Blaine now, he's trying the theme from Coronation St.....