funkymunky Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 Hi, so where to start.... So exactly a year ago, my wife, two kids (one 5 and the other almost 2) went on a month (end May to end June 2017) long trip to see family and friends. The trip included spending two weeks in Brisbane, 3 days driving from Brisbane to Sydney and 9 days in Sydney. We stayed with family in Woody Point, Brisbane, we where spoiled rotten. We got a good impression of what Brisbane is like, commuting, Coffee, social life and out door life. We spent a couple of days in the CBD and surrounding areas. Our first impression was WOW! We spent a lot of time out doors, including a trip to Moreton Island, Bribie Island, Noosa, the Glass Mountains and visited a old school mate of mine at the Loo with a View in Mooloolaba. I had to make the compulsory trip to Bunnings for a sausage sizzle. I was in my element! Our drive down the coast was pretty awesome, I insisted on renting a Holden SV6 station wagon for the trip, it may have cost more than the Toyota sedan, but I could drive one of those any day back home, If i was going to do this, i was going to do it properly! We stopped over at a couple of the big touristy places, Byron Bay, Coff Harbour, Gold Coast, Port Macquarie, I cannot remember them all, spent most of the three days driving, cramming as much in as possible. On arrival in Sydney, both my wife and I where like oh great, we are back in JHB! ugh! But then we settled down, we stayed with friends in Beaumont Hills. A nice area. One thing that grabbed my attention was how many parks there where around the place. People where friendly and easy going. I dropped the rental off at the airport, got caught out filling up at a more expensive petrol station! Doh! Two kilometers down the road was another filling station with lower prices. In Sydney, we did the whole tourist thing again, visited the Zoo's and Reptile Parks. Ferry ride in Sydney, a trip to Bondi Beach, just to say we have been there, done that, thank goodness it was cold, otherwise my kids would have been in the sea in two seconds. We where treated to a fantastic weekend away with our friends, they took us to see Woolongong and Hyams Beach. 14 Deg C and my kids had stripped and where in the water before I could blink. The sand at Hyams beach is pristine and white, almost blinding white. We also spent a lot of time in the CBD, going for a seriously tasty dinner at the rocks. walking around the CBD at night was such an enjoyable experience. I compared it to what we could do at home and I felt safer at 22:00 there than I did in my own back yard at night. The light show at the Sydney Opera House was amazing. On the second last evening, my wife stayed and had drinks with family in the CBD, I took the kids home on the train and then we caught a bus to the house. My wife left the CBD at 10, walked through the CBD to the bus stop, caught a bus and phoned me when I needed to pick her up from the bus stop. It amazes me how well public transport just worked. So before our trip I was keen to move over, so while we where there, I asked a million and one questions, mostly about how things work, salaries, medical aid, insurance, cars, transport, possums, kangaroos, weather and most important life style. My wife was not really interested, but since we have gotten back, we have talked a lot about moving and the impact it would have and what would need to be done. We live on a plot on the outskirts of Centurion, my wife teaches horse riding, we have a couple of dogs, many horses and moving would require a lot of planning as to how to close down the business and how to get rid of the animals. I think this is going to be the hardest part. I plan to start my visa application process in August, we shall see how this goes. I have been lurking in this forum for the past year, but decided I should actually join, share my experiences and ask questions. Cheers for now. FunkyMunky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimpleSimon Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 What do you do. Reason is could you move to country town where you can have horses, dogs etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkymunky Posted June 21, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 (edited) I am a IT Solution Architect. I work in the service provider space designing cloud solutions for customers and internal departments. We looked at the costing for moving horses, etc over and we would not be able to do this. One thing that my wife liked about moving countries, is that she could start off again and she could start her career over. Not that she does not love her job, but because of the amount of stress that she is currently put under. Edited June 21, 2018 by funkymunky addition info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TamTam Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 (edited) A fresh new start is a really good “side effect” of emigrating! You can reinvent yourself if you really want to. Good luck with the visa process. It can be a real rollercoaster ride. Edited June 21, 2018 by TamTam 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ta2Bryan Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 Welcome! Good luck with the journey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimpleSimon Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 So what would your wife do career-wise? Sounds like she’s run away to the circus and now wants to come home. A word of caution, stress is caused by yourselves driven by ambitions and desires. The grass is never greener if you bring your current selves along, especially in a new country and emigration with toddlers is very hard, then you could find this even more stressful.. I have a friend who is a CFO at a pharmaceutical company and a professor at a university as well. Extremely successful and earning a whack. His wife is constantly looking for ways to set up a horse riding school and get some horses. In my case, 14 years ago we set up a 2-person consultancy and ran it as such until ~ 6 years ago when we decided to bring in more people to take the pressure off us. Now we are getting close to 20 people and working much harder. It’s like riding a horse that’s bolted and won’t obey the reins. We have to fix this and get control over it but we caused it in the first place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkymunky Posted June 28, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2018 Stress on her side has been from the fact that some clients businesses have taken a knock and this in turn leads to them spending less on their luxury items, as well as other clients stopping riding because of the down turn of the economy. first thing that one stops spending money on are "luxury items", horse riding is expensive and is seen a quick win to reduce expenditure. Added to this two of her long term clients horses died within the span of 2 weeks. Both from snake bite in their stables. This had a major impact on her business. No income from stabling, schooling of horses and schooling of riders. About 25% of her total income. This was over a year ago and the business has not recovered. But we carry on. My wife would still love to work with horses and kids. She has successfully taught children to ride correctly and has competitive riders riding in inter provincial schools competitions. All her competitors are in the top ten for their respective classes. We would have to see if we could start a riding school in Australia. Setup costs would be quite a bit. But we shall have to see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TamTam Posted June 28, 2018 Report Share Posted June 28, 2018 Where in oz are you looking to go? I’d love some riding lessons. But doubtful I could afford it hahaha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkymunky Posted July 9, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2018 On 6/28/2018 at 3:04 PM, TamTam said: Where in oz are you looking to go? I’d love some riding lessons. But doubtful I could afford it hahaha We would be looking at the Brisbane area, as we have family there who have agreed to assist us when we get there. We would have at least a roof over our heads. We went riding in Noosa along the beaches. It was amazing. My wife is in two minds as to whether she would be involved with horses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonny Posted July 11, 2018 Report Share Posted July 11, 2018 We live in a country town in the Moreton bay area and people in our street have goats, cows, horses and ponies. There are two little ponies in our street, so cute! Has your wife looked at the Fig Tree Pocket Equestrian club? Maybe she could get involved if you come to Brissy. FTP and Kenmore, and the whole of the Western suburbs of Brisbane are like mini South Africa 😂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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