I haven’t done too many hikes in my life, well a few. But Warrie Circuit in Springbrook National Park was definitely one of the best ones. Hot tips: Go after a period of heavy rain to lose count of how many waterfalls you see.
Don’t forget to scroll down to the very end of the post to see a couple of videos that I filmed and edited, almost all by myself (Mikael the pro helped of course).
Coolangatta is such a pretty place. But so far away from Central Gold Coast. Isn’t it crazy that the Gold Coast reaches a massive 70km along South East Queensland’s coast? Beaches as far as the eye can see ❤️
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Due to the ever changing weather in SEQ QLD, we decided to take a last minute mini camping vacation up north to Noosa Heads where we hadn’t been before. It was both the perfect and worst day for it.
Continue readingDue to the ever changing weather in SEQ QLD, we decided to take a last minute mini camping vacation up north to Noosa Heads where we hadn’t been before. It was both the perfect and worst day for it.
Continue readingAs Mikael’s business as a videographer picks up, I am really happy to assist in the ways I can. A few weeks ago ago, I got contacted by the recruiter who secured the office job I currently have and asked about Mikael’s availability for a festival he was organising for Good People up in Brisbane where they needed a video to capture the feeling of the festival.
Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary is truly a special place on the Gold Coast. Having been twice in the short period of time we’ve lived here is a testament to that. Taking mother in law was a very nice experience!
A few weekends ago, on 2nd November, Mikael turned 30! In the spring, when it’s warm and light outside. That is so strange! My own normal spring birthday will now be in the fall. Land of upside-downs.
He was welcomed into his 30’s with two night’s spent in Byron Bay and some rain, but all in all by a very cosy weekend down south.
After the most incredible visit to Coombabah, we packed our car and drove down to another timezone. It is so weird that you right now travel one hour into the past, just across the border to New South Wales just south of Gold Coast.
The weekend was all about camping and just soaking in the Byronshire atmosphere with mother in law while celebrating Mikael’s 30 years on this planet as well as our first year as engaged.
His birthday started at The Farm in Byron Bay. Super busy even if it was raining a lot! Really good breakfast and cute place with animals.
We then drove up to the lighthouse and were so lucky the weather was not optimal, there were pretty much no people and we managed to get a parking spot. As with the whale season being over, there were no whales. But the views were still incredible! Up there, we took a fika break and Elise and I had a very funny encounter with a magpie friend. He was walking on the rail, right next to where we were sitting, Elise was filming it and it was cheeky enough to keep walking and then hide behind a pole, just for it to pop its head out around it as she just stopped filming. It was hilarious! 
This time, the most eastern point of Australia was accessible and we have now stood on one of four corners of this continent.
This poor guy had the biggest tick I have ever seen right under his eye. Also, these water dragons are everywhere now when it’s getting warmer outside.
Birthday dinner!
This blog is not as active as I was hoping. But so much stuff is happening all the time and while trying to find a routine, it’s hard to keep up with updates (we’re not even gonna discuss my Instagram).
Mother in law has now been here with us down under for a week and she is loving it! She was a bi anxious flying so far, but all went so well, she came down with so much energy and has had no jet lag at all. We have been more tired than her, haha!
On her third day all across the world, we took her to my (so far) favorite place, Coombabah Lake Conservation Park where we had the most wonderful day! The first time, Mikael and I went, we spotted 5 koalas, countless kangaroos, and several kookaburras. This time, we spotted 9 koalas, fewer kangaroos, and no kookaburras. Although we heard many of them laughing loudly. They have a very specific sound.
Spring is definitely here, the days are higher 20’s, 30’s even some days. Mostly sunny, and stormy in the evenings and nights. On Halloween, we had a massive storm right above us. BOM gave out warnings of severe storms with hail more inland. Crazy! But beautiful!
Friday, the day after the extreme thunderstorm, was beautiful, like nothing happened the night before! And we had a once in a lifetime experience ❤️
Here we had koala number one, by the first grass field, 5 minutes walking from the car park.
A kangaroo mom and her joey hiding from the sun.
Koala number two.
And this you guys, is koala number three. I spotted this one after Mikael and Elise had already walked past them. She was awake and started climbing down the tree. And as she was descending, I realized that koala number four was there as well.
She climbed all the way down to the ground, with her baby on her back.
She walked straight toward us to climb a tree right next to us. She was also one eyed.
She hopped up the tree, stopped every now and then and posed adorably for us spectators. Her joey also being super photogenic.
She climbed all the way up to the top where they most likely fell asleep again. Probably that day’s adventure for them since they sleep pretty much every hour of the day. This was the most incredible experience I have ever had and I might have shed a tear of joy or two.
Here is koala number five, clinging to the tree as if its life depended on it.
Kangaroos cooling down in the water.
Koala number six.
And these two guys! Number seven and eight. I wasn’t sure how this worked when I first spotted them because there was a leg hanging very low from the fluffy bum higher up on the right. Then I realized there were two of them sleeping together.
And last but definitely not least, number nine.
This lizard was spotted by Elise.
And we didn’t just see a baby koala, we also had another encounter with a roo mom with a joey poking its head out, eating with its mom. So adorable!!
This was definitely a unit of a kangaroo. The biggest and most muscular one I have seen!
Oh, I miscalculated. We actually spotted ten koalas this day. How could I have missed that?! Oh well, happy mistake 😄
Every day should be like this! Sun, warmth, nature and wildlife. Love it!
This month’s full moon was the third supermoon in as many months. It must have been the one in August where I saw something red rise above the horizon while playing beach volleyball. I had no idea about it then, but this time, I knew what was coming and we spent both nights down by the beach watching the moonrise.
An extra treat was the Country Music Festival going on at the same time and place. We had dinner in the free festival area, listened to some music, watched people line dance and just watched people in general. Some were so dressed up. I love how this city hosts events like this all the time. And for free! And just around the corner from where we live.
I didn’t take any photos of the festival sadly though, so please enjoy a a few bad pictures of the incredible full moon instead. The phone adjusts the lighting on its own, and it just turns so bad. I asked Mikael to bring his Sony camera, but he didn’t. So that was a bummer. His new Samsung phone is pretty great though 😊. (The first two are mine, the second two are Mikael’s)
After five months in Australia, I have now been to the doctor’s for the first time. And I think it went pretty well. Well, I am waiting for the pathology tests results, but administrative-wise all went well.
The day we received our PR, 3 October, we got our Medicare cards in the mail that we applied for a couple of weeks prior. Pretty much enrolment in the Australian health care system. There are three types of Medicare cards, yellow, blue and green. Yellow is for the countries with a reciprocal health agreement with Australia and when you are visiting or are a student. 11 countries in total, and Sweden is one of them. We could have saved so much money, not getting travel insurance for our first time in Australia and just gone straight for the yellow card, but oh well. The blue card is for people who applied for their PR but still waiting for the outcome and green is the card for PR and citizens. So on the day we got our PR status, we received our blue cards in the mail and they were instantly made redundant because we had to get new cards that matched our status. Australia Services sent new cards out automatically though which was very refreshing. We have them digitally as well, along with everything else here, our MasterCards, our driving licenses. They are digital here which I like. But we are very dependent on our phones.
I got a longer appointment to start with to go over my health history, the doctor took notes on when I should get my next cervical screening for example, we talked about contraception and when that is due to renew etc. And he even explained how Medicare works quickly. If you are enrolled in Medicare, that means that you get money back from doctor’s appointments. You still pay full price, but get a certain amount sent back into your bank account. I got my money the same day. Super convenient. My visit this time cost $211 and I got $83 back, so still kinda expensive compared to what we are used to back home in Sweden. There, you pay $15 per visit unless it is with a specialist, then it is $45. But I guess that price can go down with private insurance? That is a later thing to deal with for us though.
The reason for my visit yesterday was bloated stomach. And not just a little. I wouldn’t go to the doctor otherwise. I am crossing my fingers for just a gluten intolerance, but worst case scenario, it could be coeliac disease. We set up a plan with tests depending on what the blood tests today says. I feel well-taken care off and we will just have to wait and see what the results are and how to deal with it.
3 October 2024
I honestly can’t believe I’m writing this. Lots of people know already, but now it is finally time to make it official. Long story short: Mikael and I have been in the process of applying for a Skilled Nominated subclass 190 Permanent Residency Visa for the past 2 years after finding it hard to get out of the squirrel wheel in Sweden (I’ve no idea why we say that in Swedish). Not that we had bad lives, we actually had it pretty good, but it wasn’t enough.
This arvo, at 5:10pm, I heard Mikael’s phone ring from the other room and as soon as I heard him answer: “Hi Jenny”, I instantly knew that our journey had both just ended and begun! Jenny, our migration agent, only contacts clients via email, unless it’s THE CALL. The visa grant call! More than two years of hard work, lots of money spent, many emotional rollercoasters has finally come to an end. And our life in Australia as permanent residents can finally begin (even though we technically arrived here more than four months ago).
We can’t believe it! We are over the moon! And we are beyond grateful and thankful to be able to call Australia our home!
I understand that there might be some questions regarding this, that this came out of the blue. But don’t worry. I have privately been blogging about the process from the very start but didn’t want to publish anything before everything was finalised. And this was the last step in the process. I still can’t believe we are here, we got our grant. Holy schmoly! As time goes, I will start publishing these old blog posts so you can follow along, alongside with our current adventures down under.
What started as (yet another) crappy Swedish summer in 2022 and just getting sick and tired of vitamin D deficiencies, winter depressions, and darkness has turned into us trying to figure out what our priorities in this new life are. That will take time, because honestly, we have started our new lives from scratch, we are blank pages, we can do whatever we want. And to get to this new chapter in our lives, we have had invaluable help from the Down Under Centre, the DUC, a migration agency in England. We first contacted them in September 2022 and from then it’s been an adventure, for sure. Stay tuned for flashback posts on how we got to where we are today!
In the world of migration, it is very popular with timelines, so I will post ours here. It probably won’t make too much sense yet.
Bemm 