Travelling to Australia

Well we made it to Australia alive on time and with all our bags, which since I've flown quite a bit, I know is a miracle!  We lost a whole day on our way here which it a weird feeling - I still think that its a day behind sometimes!  It was sad leaving home, we were spoiled living with my parents and sister and Charlie really misses them!  (And so do Andrew and I!)

We flew from Edmonton to LA on Westjet and they charged us $20 for each extra bag,which is their fee, instead of Air New Zealands fee (which is $150 for each extra bag).  We were so excited!  Unfortunately even though they could send our bags right through, we had to leave the secure area in LA and get our boarding passes for the second and third legs or our trip.  Charlie and I didn't go through the long line with Andrew, and when he got to the counter the ANZ guy asked Andrew if we had been charged for our bags yet.  Andrew said we were charged, but at WJs fees instead of ANZ fees...  they guy asked for a receipt but I had it with Charlie so Andrew tells the guy, not he doesn't have the receipt with him but he could go get it... Luckily the guy says no don't worry about it - so we narrowly escaped having to pay the extra $260 for our extra baggage - yay!  Small miracle!  Charlie was really good on his first flight, he just cried a little during taxiing at both ends.  We had a 9 hour layover in LA which I thought was going to be torture, but it actually went by really fast!  It helped that there was free wifi!

Charlies first flight!

From LA we flew direct to Auckland, and we had booked a bassinet for Charlie - best idea ever!  He slept probably 10 of the 12 hours of the flight which was so nice because that meant Andrew and I could get some sleep as well!  The plane we were on was super nice and they took really good care of us.

Charlie in his bassinet

We only had a 1 1/2 layover in New Zealand so that was nice, shortly after arriving and going through security again (where there were the nicest security people I have EVER encountered when flying!) we were on our final flight to Brisbane!

Welcome to New Zealand!

Final flight!  I look so tired...

All in all it wasn't too bad of an experience (flying with a baby)  We only went through 3 outfits and endured fairly minimal crying and fussing.  I am dreading the return flight home in November since Charlie is going to be bigger and more active!

The University offers a free airport pickup for first time international students, so we were met at the gate by a crazy old lady who drove us out to Ipswich.  We got into our apartment and then had to go straight out to find sheets, pillows, food, toiletpaper and all that fun stuff!  By the time we got back to our apartment we tried the sheets on the bed and they didn't fit!  I guess a king single is bigger than a regular single...  So we just cut up one set to make them fit and used Charlies blankets!  (We bought a bunch of stuff from some people who are moving back to Canada, so we're waiting on a queen bed, so we only needed the single sheets for a week or so.... but sorry to anyone who comes to visit- you won't get fitted sheets on your bed!)

Charlies current sleeping arrangements!

The next day we went back over to the main shopping plaza (called Riverlink - because it is right along the river!) where we got bank accounts, phones and more supplies.

Walking over the bridge from Riverlink

Thursday we had to go into Brisbane for an orientation thing for Andrew, so we took the train in, which takes about an hour.  We also got breakfast at it - bonus!  As part of the services the organization Andrew went through to get in to UQ offers is a shuttle around to get stuff done/see things around the city.  So we had them drop us off at SouthBank across from downtown Brisbane, where there is this cool little area with shops and restaurants and a inland beach!  We decided this would be the prefect place for Charlie to go swimming for his very first time!  He loved it!

SouthBank is so pretty!

Matching sunnies!

We met up with Amy and Brandon Steed (whom Andrew first learned about the program from - he's in his 3rd year) and they showed us around a bit and gave us tips about living here and about the program.  They were parked up by the temple so we walked up there with them and got a good view of the city!  

We had Matt (the OzTrekk guy who was driving people around) had offered to drive us back to Ipswich when we were done sightseeing, which was so nice!  I'm not the biggest fan of taking the train (it's so slow) and I like saving money too!  So he dropped us back home and that brings us to today!  We're just being a little bit lazy and unpacking and all that fun stuff.  So far we think we like it here!