It was an easy family day and exactly the sort of thing we needed at that point. Not a huge mission, not a complicated itinerary, just animals, space, sunshine and the girls having something fun to focus on.

The zoo had great views back towards the city, with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge visible in the distance, which still felt slightly unreal. We had gone from seeing Sydney as a famous skyline to slowly building ordinary days around it.

The girls enjoyed the animals, especially the giraffes, monkeys and the dinosaur-themed play areas. Dotty loved having space to move around, and Georgia was happy exploring the different sections and spotting what was coming next.

It was one of those days that reminded us that arriving somewhere does not mean the adventure stops.

It just changes shape.

We were no longer travelling the world in the same way, but we were still discovering new places, learning the area, and finding family days out.

And honestly, after everything, a zoo day with the girls felt like a pretty good way to begin that next chapter.

The post Our first proper day out as residents was Taronga Zoo. appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

The visa was granted quickly. Almost absurdly quickly.

After all the talking, wondering, second-guessing and half-planning, the application itself moved faster than expected. Within twenty-four hours of applying, we had the answer.

We were allowed to stay.

That sentence changed everything, even before we fully understood how much.

Until then, Australia had still carried a temporary feeling. We were in Airbnbs. We were moving between places. We had bought the Captiva because rentals were ridiculous, but even that still felt like a practical travel decision rather than a permanent one. We were still living with the mental flexibility of people who did not quite know where the next month would land.

Then the visa came through, and suddenly the questions changed.

Not where next?

But where now?

The first anchor was Dotty’s school.

We found a school for her in Dural, and it felt right almost immediately. More than right. It felt perfect. The kind of place where the decision stops being theoretical because one important piece of the future has suddenly clicked into place. For a family like ours, school is not just school. It is routine, safety, trust, therapy, support, communication, people who understand, and the daily structure around which everything else has to fit.

Once we found that, the map changed.

We needed to be nearby. Close enough that Dotty’s days would be manageable, close enough that school did not become another logistical mountain, but also connected enough that I could get into the city for work. Access to the Metro became important. We needed a place that could work for Dotty, for Georgia, for Ali, for me, and for whatever version of life was about to begin.

So we started looking for rentals.

And the first day was grim.

Sydney rentals are not for the faint-hearted. The prices were painful, and some of the places we saw were worse. Expensive, tired, dirty, badly kept, or just completely wrong for us. You walk in hoping for possibility and walk out wondering how something can cost that much and still make you want to wash your hands.

Ali was in disbelief. Not mildly annoyed. Properly worn down by it. At one point she was close to tears, and I understood why. We had spent months making impossible things work, but this was different. This was not a difficult border crossing or a bad hotel or a long drive that would be over by evening. This was the shape of our new life, and every wrong house felt like the future refusing to open.

But Ali does not stop.

She looked again. Then again. We went on more house hunts. Open homes. Listings. Maps. School distance. Metro access. Prices. Photos that lied. Rooms that looked fine online and dreadful in person. Houses that seemed promising until you stood inside them and felt the hope leave your body.

The last one that day was awful.

One of those houses where you know almost immediately, but you still walk through it because you have already driven there, and because part of you is still pretending to be open-minded. We came out deflated.

Then Ali said there had been another one around the corner.

It had been removed from the listings, so we thought it was gone. But she checked again, because that is what Ali does. She checks again when most people have already emotionally given up.

And there it was.

Back online.

So we went.

No one else came to the open home.

That should have made us suspicious, probably, but instead it felt like the first quiet bit of luck we had been offered all day.

The house was massive. Four bedrooms. Two lounges. A playroom. Ducted air conditioning. A huge landing. A walk-in wardrobe. Space everywhere. Actual space. After all the cramped, tired, overpriced places we had seen, this one felt almost unreal.

We walked through it trying not to look too excited.

That is the strange theatre of house hunting. You are standing inside a place silently measuring your future against the walls, while pretending you are simply checking cupboard space.

But we knew.

This could work.

Dotty could get to school. Georgia could have space. Ali could breathe. I could reach the Metro and get into the city. The house had enough room for us not just to stay, but to live.

So we applied.

And we got it.

Just like that, the bad inspections, the dirty rentals, the awful houses, the near-tears, all of it started to recede. Not because it had not been stressful, but because the right place had appeared at the end of it.

Life flipped almost overnight.

One minute we were still acting like long-term travellers: moving between Airbnbs, making short-term decisions, keeping plans loose because loose plans had kept us going for more than a year.

The next minute we had a visa, a school for Dotty, a rental house, a car, and a new suburb to learn and going to ikea because we needed everything.

Dotty started school before Georgia somehow and Georgia’s school wanted her to start asap. There was no grand pause, no ceremonial moment where we stood on a hill and declared the journey complete.

New life does not always announce itself properly. Sometimes it just opens the door, throws a uniform at you, asks for lunchboxes, and expects you to keep up.

So that is what happened.

We were not eased into Sydney life.

We were plopped into it.

School runs. Forms. Uniforms. Bags. Routes. Groceries. Furniture questions. Where is the nearest supermarket? How long to the Metro? What time do we need to leave? Where do shoes go? What day is bin day? The ordinary machinery of life started up around us before we had finished processing that the journey, the great moving thing that had carried us across the world, had changed shape.

For fourteen months, home had been wherever the four of us were.

A hotel room in Dover.
An apartment in Lucca.
A snowy villa in Slovenia.
A bus seat in Peru.
A beach house in Hikari.
A campervan in New Zealand.
An Airbnb in Freshwater.

Now home had an address again, our bags fully unpacked for the first time in what felt like forever.

It did not arrive with fanfare. It arrived through a school placement, a visa approval, a desperate rental search, and Ali checking one more listing when everything else had looked hopeless.

That was how the road became a life.

Not all at once.

Then very suddenly.

The post The End Of Our World Travels appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

Around this time, the Australia idea started to become more serious.

On New Year’s Eve, what we were doing had still been more of a dream than a plan. We had talked about staying, but nothing was solid. No application, no paperwork, no firm decision. Just a thought that kept coming back, we intended to travel for a year, by now we were 14 months in.

After spending time with Ali’s family, settling into Freshwater for a few weeks, buying the Captiva, and starting to feel how life in Australia might actually work, we decided to look properly at applying for a visa.

We booked an appointment with a migration agent and started getting the paperwork together.

Anyone who has applied for a visa knows it is not exactly romantic. It is forms, evidence, dates, documents, uploads, identity checks and trying to remember the exact details of your own life while a website quietly judges you.

But it mattered.

For most of the journey, we had been moving from country to country with the next step already planned. This was different. This was not about where we were going next. It was about whether we could stay.

Within a week or two, we had pulled the documents together and submitted what was needed. Then, 24 hours later on the 24th, the visa with indefinite stay was granted.

It did not take as long as we expected, which was a massive relief.

Up to that point, Australia had still felt temporary. We were staying in Airbnbs, moving between places, buying a car because rentals were too expensive, and trying to work out what came next.

The visa being granted did not mean everything was sorted.

But it did mean one very important thing:

we were allowed to stay.

The post Deciding to Apply for the Visa appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

We spent Australia Day with family down by the water.

Australia Day is held on 26 January each year. Officially, it is Australia’s national day, marking the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788. For many people, it is a public holiday spent with family, friends, barbecues, picnics, beaches and community events. It is also a complicated date, because for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples it marks the beginning of colonisation and is observed as Invasion Day, Survival Day or a day of mourning.  

For us, as a family spending time in Australia, it was a relaxed day with family rather than anything grand or political.

We went down by the water for a simple picnic. There were boats in the background, kids playing on the sand, food on the table, and plenty of space for everyone to spread out.

Georgia and Dotty joined in with beach games, played near the water, and enjoyed being outside with their cousins. The girls wore Australia Day headbands, everyone chatted, and the day had that easy summer feeling where you do not need much more than grass, shade, food and water nearby.

Nothing complicated. No big plan.

Just family, food, sunshine, water and a nice afternoon together.

The post Australia Day appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

Dotty’s birthday landed while we were staying in Freshwater, in an Airbnb with a pool that we had rented for nearly four weeks.

It turned out to be a perfect place for it.

After months of moving around, we had space, sunshine, family nearby and a pool, which in January in Australia is basically birthday infrastructure.

Ali’s family came over, the doors were open, presents were handed around, and the kids moved between the house, the deck and the water. It felt easy in a way we had not had for a while.

At one point, there were sixteen people in the pool.

Sixteen.

That probably says more about the day than anything else. It was busy, hot, noisy, splashy and very Australian. Not glamorous, not staged, just a proper family birthday with wet towels everywhere, people chatting, kids swimming, presents being opened and Dotty right in the middle of it all.

She had balloons, presents, cake, family, and plenty of water, which is always one of her happiest places.

After so much travel, it felt special to have a birthday that was not squeezed into a hotel room or fitted around a moving day. We were still temporary, still in an Airbnb, but for that afternoon it felt like we had borrowed a little piece of normal life.

A house.
A pool.
Family around.
A very happy Dotty.

And honestly, that was more than enough.

The post Dotty’s Birthday in Freshwater: Pool, Family and Australian Summer appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

After the house sit near Warringah Mall, we rented an Airbnb in Freshwater for nearly four weeks.

It was a great spot.

Freshwater gave us space, a pool, beaches nearby, and a proper base for a while. After months of moving from place to place, having somewhere for more than a few nights made a big difference. We were still temporary, still travelling, still working things out, but it gave the girls a bit of routine and gave us room to breathe.

The location was ideal for that stage of the trip. We could get to the beach, do normal shopping, explore the Northern Beaches, and still get into Sydney when we wanted to.

It was not “home” yet, but it was one of the first places in Australia that gave us a taste of what normal life might feel like here.

A pool.
A beach nearby.
A kitchen.
A few weeks without constantly packing.

After fourteen months on the road, that felt pretty good.

The post Freshwater for Four Weeks appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

After sorting the car, we booked an Airbnb in the Blue Mountains for a night and took the new Captiva on its first proper family outing.

It felt good to have our own wheels again. Not glamorous, not fancy, but ours. After dealing with rental prices and the awful MG, the red Holden suddenly felt like freedom.

The Blue Mountains were a great first test.

We visited Scenic World, where the girls got to ride the railway and cable cars through the rainforest and over the valley. The weather was moody, with low cloud and mist moving across the cliffs, which actually made the whole place feel more dramatic. You did not get perfect postcard views all the time, but you did get that proper mountain atmosphere.

We also did the Dinosaur Valley trail, which was a big hit. Dinosaurs hidden through the rainforest, boardwalks, trees, damp air, and children hunting for the next prehistoric thing around the corner. It was a good mix of nature and fun, which is usually the sweet spot for us.

The next day, the weather cleared a bit and we got some proper Blue Mountains views. Huge cliffs, green valleys, big skies, and that feeling Australia does so well where everything suddenly seems much larger than expected.

It was only one night, but it worked perfectly.

A new car, a short road trip, a family Airbnb, misty mountains, dinosaurs, cable cars and views.

Not bad for the Captiva’s first proper run.

The post Night in the Blue Mountains appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

While we were staying near Warringah Mall, we started looking at renting another car.

The MG hire car we had was easily the worst car we had ever driven. It was uncomfortable, annoying, and somehow made every normal journey feel harder than it needed to be.

When we checked rental prices, the decision became fairly obvious. Another car was going to cost around $2,000 for two weeks, which felt ridiculous.

So we changed plan.

Instead of spending that money on another rental, we bought a car.

We found a red seven-seater Holden Captiva with low mileage for a decent price. It was not glamorous, but I liked it, it was practical. It had space for the girls, bags, shopping, beach stuff, and everything else that seemed to follow us around by then.

The funny part was that we bought it from a French couple who were also travelling around the world.

After all the places we had been, after starting in France, after driving away from France in the snow thinking we might have made a huge mistake, we somehow ended up in Sydney buying our Australia car from French travellers doing their own version of the same mad thing.

Travel has a sense of humour sometimes.

So we bought the Captiva, took the MG rental back, and got a little bit of control back.

It was not glamour.

But it was useful, affordable, ours, and after the MG, that felt like luxury.

The post Buying a Car Instead of Renting One appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

While we were staying on the Northern Beaches, Georgia joined a summer club at Narrabeen.

It was exactly the sort of thing she needed after so much travelling: other children, outdoor activities, water, and something that felt like normal school-holiday life rather than another sightseeing day.

She got stuck into the activities, including knot tying and towing, while me, Ali and Dotty spent the day nearby at Narrabeen Lagoon.

It worked really well for all of us.

Georgia had her own adventure, doing something active and independent, while Dotty got a slower day by the water. After months of moving from place to place, days like this mattered. Not every day needed to be a big landmark or a famous attraction. Sometimes the best travel days were the ones where everyone got something they needed.

Narrabeen was perfect for that.

The lagoon was calm, shallow and easy, with plenty of space to sit, paddle and relax. Dotty loved being in the water with her inflatable, splashing around and enjoying the sunshine. It was simple, warm and exactly the kind of low-pressure day that makes travelling with children much easier.

For us, it was another reminder that long-term family travel is not just about ticking off places. It is about finding little pockets of ordinary life along the way.

Georgia got her summer club day.
Dotty got the water.
We got a slower day by the lagoon.

And that is the win.

The post A Summer Club Day at Narrabeen Lagoon appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.

We headed into Sydney for a proper city day.

We were staying on the Northern Beaches at the time, so going into the city felt like a mini adventure of its own. Sydney is one of those places you feel like you already know before you arrive. The Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, the ferries, the blue water. They are famous for a reason.

We started around Darling Harbour, which worked really well with the girls. There was space to walk, boats to look at, a playground to burn off energy, and a carousel, which is always going to win when travelling with children.

After more than a year of family travel, we have learned that days out do not need to be complicated. Sometimes the best plan is just to find somewhere easy, let the kids enjoy what is in front of them, and not try to force the day into a strict sightseeing route.

From Darling Harbour, we made our way towards the harbour area. Seeing the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge in person still felt special, even after all the famous places we had visited on the journey.

Some landmarks are overhyped.

Sydney Harbour is not one of them.

It looked exactly how you hope it will look: bright, busy, open and unmistakably Australian. Ferries moved across the water, the Opera House sat there looking impossible, and the Bridge tied the whole view together.

We also spent time around the Royal Botanic Garden, which gave us a quieter break from the city. It was hot, sunny, and very much a January day in Australia, so having green space, shade and room for the girls to move around made a big difference.

It was not a complicated day. No huge itinerary. No big travel drama. Just a family day in Sydney with playgrounds, harbour views, sunshine and the kind of photos everyone takes when they finally stand in front of the Opera House.

And honestly, sometimes that is enough.

The post A Family Day in Sydney: Darling Harbour, Playgrounds and the Opera House appeared first on Tantrumming Trailblazers.