The hard bit is over (we hope)

We are now settling into our new home, suburb and city!  It was hard work to get here though and so much harder going inter-country rather than simply moving cities.  We are glad we have two years to recover before we repeat the process. 

In the end, Kent, Fraser, Barney and Phoebe left for Australia as planned, leaving Alice and Leah at home for an extra week to complete the final administration, maintenance, pack up and cleaning, which couldn't have been achieved without help from Nana Joan, Aunty Sheila, Craig and Penny (neighbours) and Karen (now in our house)!

Unfortunately, upon reuniting, the children were ABOMINABLE for the first couple of days.  Despite Alice's multiple and perfect demonstrations of the 'Australian siesta', the children were far too excited to have an afternoon nap to reset their body clocks, and took every opportunity to sabotage our essential trips to sort out our administration in Australia!  It was looking highly probable that Santa would be skipping our house this year (coincidentally our unaccompanied airfreight containing the Christmas presents also hadn't arrived).

Thankfully on about Day Four the children awoke at a reasonable hour (instead of 5am) with smiles on their faces and much more congenial attitudes!  They have since been having a wonderful time while we explore the sights of Canberra, our favourites so far being the National Zoo and Aquarium, Cockington Green Gardens (http://www.cockingtongreen.com.au/), and Questacon (like Te Papa but science based http://www.questacon.edu.au/#canberra).  The city is all that everyone promised!  Easy to get around, beautiful, clean and plenty for families to do.  It has been like a family holiday so far (except with cooking/cleaning), and the Christmas presents arrived in time after all!

Temperatures have largely been cool, much to Alice's disappointment!  The highest it has been is 37C (luckily we were at http://bigsplashwaterpark.com.au/ that day) but otherwise it is generally in the mid-20s and will cool off at night (between 10 - 20C) so it is comfortable sleeping. We have had rain every week which is good as it means no water restrictions and the grass is green.  The kids enjoyed our first hail storm (hail as big as grapes) and thankfully slept through the first LOUD thunder/lightning storm, although Barney was terrified instead (meaning Kent had to apply the appropriate cuddles all night)!

Barney and Phoebe have been perfect!  They have adapted to spending more time outside (when it isn't too hot or cold) and have loved exploring a new suburb on their daily walks.  For a while there it looked like we would have to change our blog name to twoslimbeagles, but no, Phoebe has since discovered that the wheelie bin is lower than the one at home and engorged herself, and then gone back to only walking every second day or so.  We are 100m from a bush track that goes right around the perimeter of the suburb, so they get plenty of off-lead time, and we are already starting to meet all the dogs in the neighbourhood.

The house is growing on us.  It is not ideal for young children: master bedroom on level three, children's rooms on level one, cold hard tiles that become slippery and smash plates, a huge drop of seven metres from the top balustrade to the ground in the front atrium and a drop of three metres between the formal lounge and the dining room!  However the children have been sensible so far, and we just sleep in the spare bedroom instead.  It has gas central heating and an air con system, and all the furniture (with some tweaking) and appliances supplied are excellent.  The back section is HUGE (20m x 20m) and weedy (yes, we have already sprayed) so we have bought one of these which is waiting for us to find the time to assemble: http://www.yardgames.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=70_74&products_id=1032.  We also had to buy a lawnmower and hedge trimmers asap!

The suburb us lovely!  Gorgeous brick homes with beautifully landscaped front lawns, several man-made lakes, surrounded by forest on two sides and grassland reserves on the other (where the kangaroos hang out), numerous paved bike trails, and well-appointed, with a supermarket, bakery, medical centre, chinese restaurant, pub, etc.  It is 20 minutes from Canberra though, so a little bit isolated, and being in NSW instead of ACT has already presented administrative difficulties (registering a car, finding a preschool, different holiday periods, etc etc).  We had to buy two cars pronto, so the move is quite hard on the pocket initially (and those of you who know Kent, knows that he does not like to spend money!).

Kent is looking forward to starting his job shortly, Leah is desperate to start school at the end of January, and Fraser starts the local preschool tomorrow so it won't be long before we re-establish the rhythm of the household and start meeting some locals.  So far everyone has been exceptionally friendly and helpful.  Freakishly so.

Naturally we are missing you all and want to hear what you got up to for Christmas!  A big thank you to those who have sent little gifts and cards, they are really appreciated!  The children have finally stopped asking if their friends will be at the pools/park etc when we head out somewhere.  You are all very much in our thoughts though.  Glad to hear the weather in Wellington has been surprisingly lovely!