A weekend on Phillip Island...

When it came time to plan our first weekend trip from Melbourne, Phillip Island was a natural choice. Located 90 minutes south-east of Melbourne, Phillip Island is home to an abundance of wildlife, including the famous little penguins, who come ashore in groups at Summerland Bay every evening at dusk.

Dave and I left Melbourne early-afternoon on Friday, and took the metro out of the city. From there we rented a car (!) and drove the rest of the way to Phillip Island. This was our first attempt at driving on the left side of the road, and even though we were both a bit intimidated beforehand, it ended up going really well! It took Dave about five minutes to get comfortable driving from the right side of the car (and to stop turning on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal), but soon enough we were well on our way.

We decided to try something different and opted to stay with Phillip Island Glamping in the small town of Cowes. When we arrived at our glamped-out-tent it was all set up and looked great! Definitely more luxurious than the camping I'm used to.

Glamping on Phillip Island including comfy blankets and fairy lights!

Thanks Serena for making our stay so nice!

On Friday evening we headed to the Penguin Parade in Summerland Bay. Every night, over 1,000 little penguins return to shore after spending the day in the surrounding waters. They come back to land to mate and lay their eggs.

On our way to see the little penguins!

Summerland Bay

We arrived at the parade just after 7:00 pm and were able to get great seats right on the beach, less than five feet away from where the penguins waddled by. You aren't allowed to take photos of the actual penguins (though I may have snuck a few). The coolest part of the experience, is that after the penguins arrive, they are very active around the boardwalk area that leads back to the car park. The entire walk back we were accompanied by troves of little penguins squawking and waddling away.

To continue our wildlife tour, on Saturday morning we went to the Koala Conservation Centre also located on the island. We spent an hour or so wandering the boardwalks and playing "I Spy..." with the koalas that were tucked away in the trees, snoozing. It turns out koalas sleep a lot! If you want to catch them in action, it's best to visit in the late afternoon, as that's when the koalas are most active.

This koala had a great spot, wedged into the tree branches

Another cozy climber!

After our trip to see the koalas, we rushed back to our tent to watch a very important baseball game.

Toronto vs. Cleveland game one!

To console ourselves after the disappointing loss, we went for a walk at Cowes Jetty, on the north end of the island. There were extremely high winds while we were there, and the water was quite choppy, which you can see in the photos.

The piece of land in the distance is Mornington Peninsula, mainland Australia.

Cowes Jetty + a seagull (he's a bit disguised)

Dave enjoying the view of the ocean

Dave at Cowes Jetty

Sea foam + red rocks at Cowes Jetty

Afterwards, we drove out to San Remo to go on a boat tour to the seal rocks, located off the south-west coast of the island.

Pinnacles Lookout from the ocean, on our way to the seal rocks

Seal rocks, where over 30,000 seals live! The smell was a dead giveaway...

If you look closely you can see the seals laying on the rocks

A zoomed in photo to better see the seals!

Our boat got within 10 metres of the rocks, and many seals swam out to say hi!

Last stop on our whirlwind tour of Phillip Island was a drive out to The Nobbies (I love the name) which is a unique rock formation in the Summerlands.

Such a beautiful landscape!

It reminded me and Dave of Ireland or Scotland, with all the green

The aptly named Nobbies, off the coast of Phillip Island

Next stop: Tasmania

Looking eastward along the Phillip Island coast

Cheers,
Heather

Our first Melbourne visitor!

On Thursday Dave and I were excited to host our first visitor in Australia! 

Katelynn and Nolan came to Australia for Nolan's work, and Katie was able to enjoy an quick 20 hours in Melbourne with Dave and I.

It was so nice having someone visit from home. On Friday morning the three of us enjoyed brunch at Wide Open Road, a typical Melbourne cafe in the nearby suburb of Brunswick. Here are some photos from our meal! It was a great cafe, definitely a must do in Melbourne for any future visitors we may have.

Katelynn and Dave at Wide Open Road in Brunswick, Victoria.

Coffee for the coffee addict (yours truly)

Dave and Katelynn both ordered a bacon sandwiche for brunch

I enjoyed this giant kale-avo salad

Thanks for coming to visit, Katelynn. I hope you and Nolan enjoy the rest of your stay in Australia!

Canadian Thanksgiving Abroad

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!

Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holiday's. At home it's the promise of fall colours along the forest-lined DVP. It's my Nana singing along to Frank Sinatra while she cooks a turkey (and a ham and sometimes some sausages too, for good measure). It's poker and pass the ace with the Cosentino's after dinner. It's football played on the street, and on the TV.

Despite the fact that we moved to Australia, where there are no pilgrims, no Mayflower, and certainly no fall harvest, I declared early on that we would celebrate Thanksgiving, regardless. Even though substitutions had to be made (lamb for turkey, being the most critical) I'd still call it a success.

Here are some photos from Dave and I's Thanksgiving dinner:

Meal prep: stuffed peppers

Meal prep: green beans and potatoes for mashing

Homemade cannelloni with ricotta and spinach filling

Slow cooked lamb

Carving the lamb

Cannelloni after baking

For dessert: ice cream sandwiches with homemade chocolate chip cookies

One month in Melbourne: Tips for moving abroad

This week marked an exciting milestone for Dave and I: one month since we arrived in Melbourne, exhausted and jet-lagged from our jont across Europe (very much in need of clean clothes).

What a month it's been!

In a little over four weeks we've managed to move from our temporary airbnb, to a more permanent one-bedroom apartment with all the fixings. We bought a fridge (what an adult thing to do!). We've spent many, many afternoons exploring the CBD and inner suburbs on a constant search for the best coffee and working hideouts. We've watched some footy and just last weekend cheered on the Western Bulldogs in the AFL Grande Final. We've dipped our toes in the Port Phillips Bay. We've come to a temporary truce with Australian wildlife.

Overall, it's been one of the most stressful and exciting months of my life.

So, in honour of this exciting milestone, I wanted to take a moment (with the Jays game on in the background) to reflect on some what we've learned so far, for anyone who might be considering a similar move, or just curious about what our experience moving from Canada to Australia has been like.

So you want to move abroad? Top five tips to make it happen:

1. Transfer money to your new country before leaving home. Dave and I did this, sort of, but a lot of trouble could be saved if you learn from our mistakes. We did some research before we left Toronto, and were pleased to learn that the Commonwealth Bank of Australia lets you open an account online before you go. Great, right? Not so great: Forgetting to transfer money into said account before you leave. To be fair, we had a lot going on (trekking across Europe and all) but when we arrived in Australia we were limited to our credit cards and the $500 cash we'd brought with us. From there, it was a bit of a dance getting money sent overseas (it turns out Canadian banks would really like you to be standing on Canadian soil when sending money). We've now got some workarounds in place (thanks, Sue!) so we've overcome our temporary financial challenge, but you can save yourself a lot of stress if you deal with the finances before hand and have a plan in place for how you're going to transfer currencies around the world.
2. Don't sign a lease on an apartment until you've had the chance to explore the city. This is something Dave and I got right, but my over-eager planning could have gotten in the way. Upon arriving in Australia we checked into an airbnb, which we'd booked for the entire month of September to give us time to find a more permanent home. This gave us the opportunity to explore Melbourne for a couple of weeks before deciding where to move too. This is important because it's impossible to get a feel for a city—and certainly its scale—based on Google Maps alone. In the end, we moved into a totally different part of the city than I would have chosen, had we picked a place to live before moving here. One important thing to note: our airbnb had a flexible cancellation policy, which allowed us to modify our check-out date mid-stay without paying a penalty. Not all airbnb hosts have this policy, so this is definitely something I would definitely consider when booking.
3. Update all critical documents before you go. This one was a biggy for Dave and I. It started with waiting in a ridiculously long line to renew our passports months before leaving home. Our passports weren't set to expire until 2018, but one of the conditions for our Australian Visa was that our passport couldn't expire while we were abroad. Once that was done, we were able to apply for our Visa and purchase extended health coverage (a must!). This, inevitably, led to more paperwork. In order to be eligible for private healthcare coverage, you have to go to Service Ontario, in person, and let them know you plan to be out of the country for more than six months. If you don't do this, your OHIP will expire after six months living abroad, and any extended health plan will no longer insure you. When we were at Service Ontario, the super nice women who processed our paperwork noticed that Dave's driver's license was going to expire in two months... so he had to renew that, also. Paperwork, forms, and general documentation really was the biggest hurdle for us to overcome before leaving. Make sure you start this process early, as it's impossible to do once you leave the country!
4. It's easier than you think! Something that has consistently surprised me throughout this experience, is ultimately how damn easy it was to pack up our lives and move half way around the world. Yes, the flight getting here was killer, and I'm not keen to relive the weeks of packing, weighing, unpacking, and repacking our bags, but all that aside, by the time we touched down in Melbourne to live here, the whole process felt very nonchalant. Coming from a commonwealth country, we weren't even required to speak to a border patrol agent when we landed: we just scanned our passports at the automated immigration kiosk, and the machine welcomed us to Australia, our new home.
5. It's harder than you think! As easy as it was to get here, it was hard to leave behind family and friends and familiar city streets. While watching the Jays beat the Orioles in the Wild Card game earlier this week, Dave and I both wanted to be home, back in Toronto, for the celebration. After Edwin crushed that walk off home run (and all the obligatory shouting and jumping around our apartment) I said to Dave, "Toronto will be lit up tonight." And we both got a little sad, because it's hard not being there to share the moment with the city and all the wonderful people in it. I've already started a mental check-list of all the things I want to do once we're back on home soil. 
6. BONUS: When traveling, pay for comfort. This tip comes from Dave, but I second the notion. During our travel across Europe, and especially our 40+ hour journey to Australia, we had many opportunities to spend just a few extra dollars to improve our experience (and thus our happiness) overall. Examples: for our overnight train journey across Norway, we paid for the sleeping car. For our flight to Australia, we didn't go with the cheapest airline and instead opted for more legroom and all-around better customer service (props to Singapore Air!). During our extended layover in the Changi Airport, we paid a premium for lounge access, which let us take a shower, use the wifi and peruse a dinner buffet. All of these decisions were hard for me—I'm not one to spend extra money if it can be avoided. But, I have to admit, they all paid off. I would have forked over pretty much anything for that shower in Changi Airport alone. Bottom line: When you're taking on large-scale travel, such as moving across the world, don't sweat the small stuff. It's easy to get caught up in the little added costs at every turn, but if you accept upfront that it's the cost of the experience, it makes it a lot easier to swallow. 

Are there things I'm missing? Add your tips to the comments section below!