Little Red Trike: First few weeks

were a blur... the trip over was ok, a bit of a mission, but all achieved in one day and with no excess luggage or lost luggage drama. Ella was at times a bit ratty but only as you would expect from a 3 1/2 year old with no sleep.
Arriving to Adelaide, and then attempting to fit ourselves and the 100+kg of gear (and that was only the checked in stuff) into one car, when it had taken two cars to drop us off at the start of the day in Napier was one of those situations where the Taxi driver looked at us sideways and must have been thinking there is no way, what are these people thinking! but at that point of the trip there just wasn't going to be any other way, we were all going to fit, and that we did, we just had to unpack Ella's car seat for her to sit in, and the rest of the gear went into the back of the stationwagon, (including the buggy) and we all squashed in, and nursed both Lucy and the remainder of the bags on our knees in the back seat...

The first few weeks we spent at a motel, over the road from the womens and childrens hospital,

(old part of the Womens and childrens hospital)

so handy for Ang to pop over the road and see her new work environment. Also very easy 10min walk to central city.
Ella was funny as she had been told that we were going to Australia, and so from the day after we arrived, each time we went out for a walk and then came back to the motel Ella would say "look, there is Australia!" (pointing to the motel as we walked up...) It took a few days to get her head around the fact that Australia was the place, Adelaide was the city and greenways was the motel... think she has that one sorted now...
Other than getting around and trying to select a rental house, we were pretty busy in the first few weeks catching up with a few friends. Having Jenny come along was really very helpful, as not only did it mean we had another 20kg luggage allowance, but Ang and I could go off and look at houses or go to town to stand in que's and get drivers licences, Medicare cards, etc etc, while Jenny and Ella spent whole days at the park or swimming pool, or just chilling out.
Along with catching up with friends who had moved here at the start of the year, (Walter, Shelley, Maddie & Zac + Sarah, Drew & Hannah.) we got invited up to see Stephen and Angela in the Adelaide hills, where they grow/bottle wine. lovely spot about 40min out of the city, with a resident owl in the tree and a dog named George.
So we then settled on a house, and moved in at the end of the 2nd week. It is fully furnished, (the easiest option in the short term)

(shopping in the local supermarket, about 1 min walk from home)

which one is the monkey

don't touch that Ella just leave it sleeping on the rock...

But it tickles grandma! these kangaroo are very very friendly (wallaby in this case, they are smaller than kangaroo's)

the worlds largest rocking horse. that is Daddy and Ella at the top of the rocking horse's head.

the local market. about 15mins walk into town and a ride on the free tram gets us to the market where we get all our fruit and vege's it can be quite hectic in here at times. this was taken on a very quiet day.

Look Poppa, a digger just like yours...

meet sky the clydesdale who pulled us across to granite island from victor harbour

on the tram.

Lucy bouncing around in one of her fav spots.

Ella and Mia the pink fairy. (a regular sunday outing.) more to come.

the girls chilling out at home

Roger came to visit while he was in Australia, and we did some sight seeing together. up into the Adelaide hills, and out to the beach etc. Ella had fun with Roger, showing him all her games.

like this one. it's called Dad, I'll just roll around in the pile of packing paper and make a mess while you unpack our stuff which finally turned up off the boat.