Arrived in Brisbane.

Container for transport overseas

After several very, very busy weeks, we finally arrived in Brisbane late at night on 26th of February.

During the last weeks we have been saying goodbye to friends, family, colleagues, school and creche. It was not always easy and was a very emotional process. Additionally the father of Jan suddenly was taken into hospital very seriously. These experiences already learned us a lot and renewed our view on our living until now, which was very valuable.

After having the "say goodbye" parties of Nicole and Jorick on the 15th and 16th of February (before their last day on the creche and school on resp. Febr. 21 and 22) we started  to put our stuff into boxes. On the 21th and the 22th the movers have been packing all remaining things and furniture into the container before bringing it to Rotterdam for sea transport..
Last Monday we took the plane to Brisbane and after two nights in a hotel, today we arranged a rental car and moved to a house on a camping site. We really need to get used to the time difference (jet lag) and the temperature of 27 degrees.
 
Our flight to AustraliaFor the next period our focus primarily will be to relax and get some rest, but also to arrange a house, school(s) for the children and a car.
Just before travelling to Australia we have extended our driving license. Sure, the new one is small as a credit card and fits perfectly in your wallet. But since the descriptions are only in Dutch, the Australian Ministry of Transport cannot accept it anymore for getting an Australian license and for buying a car. It’s also insufficient for car rental and we even have the risk of getting a penalty when caught driving with this license so we will try to get an official NAATI recognized translation soon. With the previous version of our Dutch license we didn’t have these problems so we we were surprised, although we could have known this.
Anyhow we succeeded in arranging a rental car after some talking.

Breakfast at hotel Terraces on Wickham

Secondly a living address (for a period not less than 6 months) is essential to get registered for Medicare (Australian health insurance), to buy a car, to register for a school and to get an Australian driving license, so that’s the next thing to do.
The children already enjoyed the kids corner at the Queensland Library by making creative art work and it is amazing how easy they understand and can communicate with the nannies there.Since we told Jorick earlier that he will become 4 years old in Australia, today  he was surprised by discovering still to be 3 years old although we are in  Australia now. Its just a matter of logic ;-)        

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