Arrival in Australia

Last night we arrived in Australia after two very long flights with two little kids, and a third short-haul. We'd flown via Abu Dhabi to Melbourne, then finally on to Adelaide.

We arrived very late at night and were met at the airport by the 'meet and greet' representative called Dennis. He escorted us to our 'On Arrival Accommodation' in Christie Downs, South Australia. Dennis and his wife Rene were very nice in lending some bedding for us to use until we'd managed to do a shop ourselves. After getting organised, we quickly settled settled down for our first night in South Australia.

In the coming weeks we will be exploring our surrounding and getting to know the area.

Flights are booked!

Today we booked the flights with Dial-A-Flight. We will be flying with Etihad Airways, from Manchester to Melbourne (via Adu Dhabi). Then on to Adelaide flying with Qantas.

We chose to go via Melbourne as it worked at far cheaper than flying to Adelaide direct.

The total cost for 2 adult and 2 kiddies is £2416. It's not bad when you look at the current cost of flying!

Motorhome sold

We have now sold our motorhome. It's sad to see it go, but it won't be coming with us to Australia! The kids are a little lost I feel, they think it will be back again in a week or two.

The guy who bought it traveled all the way down from Glasgow twice!!!! First to look at it, then again the following day to actually buy it. He paid in cash!!!! Me and Amanda spent a frantic night counting it, and I had to travel on the Manchester tram to take it to the bank - was worried I might get mugged or something!!! lol

In the end we got £15,200 for a relative quick sale. That's not bad considering we had it around 2 years and we paid around £17k. We had lots of good holidays and breaks in it, so I don't think we did too bad out of it.

Visa Granted!!!

Wooo hooo! Just got an email today from the DIAC, with 2 documents attached. The documents are 'Grant Letter.pdf' and 'Visa Evidencing - United Kingdom (01-08).pdf'.

A quick read, to find out we have been granted our visa!!!

We now have to send our passport(s) to the London Australian High Commission to have a visa label fixed inside.

I'm so excited, we can now officially emigrate to Australia and live there permanently.

The first person I told after I got the email was my wife, who then told her mum. The wife is a bit upset but, as I said, we will take each step a little at a time.

Now at least I can relax with regards to the visa, next is all the planning regarding the move. The main thing is selling the house which is proving to be quite a problem.

Chasing DIAC again...

Decided to email DIAC again using the on-line general feedback form. Asked if there was anything else that I need to do (again).

Hopefully, someone will pick it up and do something - e.g. grant visa!!!

Finger crossed...