After saying goodbye to friends and family, it was time to take all our worldly belongings and head to the airport. The 30hrs+ of traveling ahead of us seemed impossible but we took it one leg at a time. After nervously checking our luggage, not completely sure we would be under the weight restrictions/number of bags/number of carry-ons allowed, with kids in tow (literally, we pulled them along on their trunkis), we made our way to security and then on to eat.

After 3 flights, 4 interesting airplane meals, many hours of tv/movies and a few hours of uncomfortable sleep (but no sick kids), we landed in Melbourne. It was about 12:30pm Melbourne time (totally lost track of Toronto time at this point but somewhere about 2:30am?) and we were exhausted but happy to be in Australia. The weather was about 12 degrees so we were definitely the only ones in shorts and flips flops. We grabbed a much needed coffee from Gloria Jean’s and picked up our rental car. With kids sleeping in the back, Shane and I navigated our way to the coastal town of Ocean Grove, learning to drive on the wrong side of the road (the signal light was confused with the wipers many times). We are staying in a holiday house that belongs to one of Shane’s colleagues, it is lovely and we look forward to exploring in the days ahead.