Rowkin Rovings Blog

Heading Downunder again. There were a couple of reasons for this. One was to look at property to purchase in preparation for our move back home later in the year. The other reason was to celebrate Fraser’s mum 90^th birthday.

Usual shitty flight to endure first. We left Calgary and flew to San Francisco to connect with a flight to Auckland. We flew United Airlines who we usually avoid as US carrier are not particularly nice …BUT… we were very surprised indeed. It was a very new 787 Dreamliner which had a lot of leg room. Still, it didn’t make up for the 14 hour flight across the pond.

We spent two weeks with Di’s sister and husband Dex enjoing the downtime. We did some great bike rides, walks and also went camping. Caught up with a few friends and went out with Dex a couple of times for vehicle recoveries which was a hoot.

Then a quick flight across the ditch to Brisbane where we spent ten very busy days look at real estate and catching up with heaps of friends. We went out for dinner six times of which four times was to Thai restaurants. We made the mistake of asking our friends to chose the eatery for the evening and obviously everyone loves Thai. We stayed with good friends Greg, Liz and their daughter Isobella and of course Bob the dog. We got our doggy fix whilst away. Toque was being looked after by our friend Ruth where she was a huge hit at the office. Even though it was getting into mid autumn, we did find it warm in Brisbane and quite humid.

It was then down to Melbourne where we celebrated Anzac Day at the Melbourne War Memorial.

There was a big turnout and even larger this year due to the previous years of COVID lockdown.

Family came in from Adelaide, Sydney, Tasmania and Perth for the celebration weekend for Fraser’s mums 90^th birthday. It was also the weekend of King Charles III coronation which we also celebrated.

It wouldn’t be a birthday celebration unless we went to a Carlton Footy match. Unfortunatley the team didn’t perform particularly well that evening but later in the season they pulled their footy socks up and made the semi-finals for the first time in many many years.

The big day was meant to start with a hot air balloon flight over Melbourne but alsas, good old Melbourne weather prevented that occuring.

Instead we went off for a sumptuous breakfast on the 33^rd floor of one of the inner city hotels which had a spectacular view of the bay. We were the first to arrive at the restaurant to arrive and the last to leave – bang for our buck!!!

The birthday girl had a great weekend and showed a lot of us younger ones up when it comes to staying power.

Melbourne was pretty kind to us weather wise whilst we were guests in the city. We spent a lot of time also looking at property in whilst there. The prices for real estate in Australia is best described a obsene. To give you an idea, to get in Melbourne what we have here in Calgary, you have to pay three times as much….who can afford that.

We also looked at vehicles as Downunder, beside having the steering wheel on the right side of the car, they have different types of makes and models.

All in all, a productive visit.

It was then time to head back to Canada via Brisbane to commence putting all the wheels in motion to make the move which is going to be no mean feat.