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Chasing the sun….moving to the Sunshine Coast!!!

I can’t believe I am typing this ……..our two-year Bali adventure is coming to an end!

But guess what? In less than four weeks time, we are going to pack up our suitcases and relocate to Buderim on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Exciting times ahead as a new adventure awaits!

For those of you who don’t know the Sunshine Coast it has beautiful white sandy beaches, surf spots, national parks and mountainous areas. As the name suggests, it usually has great weather all year round with a humid subtropical climate. Yeah more hot and sweaty days to come!!

It has been quite amazing after telling some friends of our plans how many people have either been there on holidays or know someone living there and what a ‘beautiful part of the world’ it is. We are about 30 mins drive from Noosa, 20 mins from Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo and 30 mins from the Glasshouse Mountains. Keen for a visit? Check out this website.

It is a regional city (approx. 350,000 people); about a 1 ½ hour drive from Brisbane. Before living in Bali we were living the busy Sydney life so I am sure there will be a few things to adjust to but we are looking forward to enjoying the slower pace and the kids are so excited!

I loved what a friend of mine from Sydney who moved her and her son (Liam’s friend from school) to Canberra messaged me ‘a regional city has the perks of urban living but still loads of green space, nature walks, wildlife, sport, and less traffic and cheaper housing. Regional living is the best…you’ll have all the things you need but in a way more chilled out and relaxed environment than eastern Sydney. We will always love Sydney but there are way easier places to live!’

So how did we discover the Sunshine Coast?

Well thanks to my best friend from Sydney (besties since we were 12) who checked out the area last year and did a lot of research about living there. She really enjoyed what the Sunshine Coast has to offer! She loved the whole warm and relaxed, laid back vibe of the area and decided to move her young family in September, rent a home and give it a try. I am glad to report she has loved the move so far and is very excited for us to arrive in December!

Living in Bali has been life changing for us and going back to Sydney wasn’t feeling right at all. Our adventure in Bali was going to stretch three years and leave end of 2018 but we really wanted the kids to enjoy the last few years of primary school in Australia.

Her move started to make sense to us too and for a while now we have spoken about the idea of also moving to Queensland and finding a great school for the kids, lovely home and getting into the relaxed lifestyle.

So just like the research we did to move to Bali we did for the Sunshine Coast and Trent visited the area for 10 days back in October and found a wonderful school for the kids (Liam and Demi can’t wait) and a gorgeous house too! The new principal at the school used to teach at Trent’s old high school in Sydney! Also there is an awesome long story on how we found this amazing rental in the mountains of Buderim but that is for another time!

The last two years in Bali have been such a wonderful family experience it is too hard to put into words. It has been great making friends with other expats as they too can understand what it is like to live here. I still do have to pinch myself every now and then about how lucky we have been.

Every day is different here and now we are experiencing what it is like to live on an island with an active volcano! Mt Agung whom friends only climbed a few months ago is now live and has erupted several times with volcanic ash and steam flowing more than 6,000 metres in the sky. It is 70km away from us so we are safe and not affected. In the lead up, there have been quite a few earthquakes recently of which Demi was the only one in the family to have felt one morning a few weeks ago! Sadly, more than 200,000 people living near the volcano have been evacuated to safer villages. Mt Agung last erupted in 1963 and was one of the largest and most devastating eruptions in Indonesia’s history.

Let’s hope all will quieten down again but only Mother Nature knows!

As a result, the International airport has been closed for the last three days making it hard for us to do our last trip to Singapore and update our visas as our flights have been cancelled.

Looking back to when we first arrived, Liam was 8 and Demi 6, how much they have grown over the last two years! There lives have been enriched in so many ways and just by looking back at this blog and our videos and photos will help them remember all the special times.

I enjoy posting our highlights and writing up articles for the blog and getting your responses. I will try and post a few more times before we go like I thought to write ‘100 things I have learnt living in Bali’.

So ‘Our year in Bali’ blog looks like it will continue but change to – ‘From Bali to Buderim’….what do you think?

 

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