The year was 1999, when together we first set sail for the state of Tasmaina. From the moment we arrived on the Isalnd we fell in love with it. For two weeks we travelled around the state, visiting all the usual tourist destinations such as Cradle Mountain, the murals at Sheffield, Salamanca Market in Hobart and Port Arthur down south, and with each growing day that passed we continued to deepen our affection for the place.

Once our two weeks were over, we returned to our home in Victoria and set about our usual business. But always in the back of our minds we would yearn for Tasmania. On many occasions we would again rehash the positive and negative issues related with picking up and moving our young family across the water to a place where we knew absolutely no one. We would decide that the impact on the children could be huge and would forgo the dream again.

Then in late December 2007, we again sat down and discussed where we should be heading in life and what we ultimatley wanted to achieve and be able to offer for our children. This time however, our personal circumstances had changed and we had begun to focus on the reality of future opportunitiesand lifestyle options.

We both agreed that we wanted a fresh start and that Tasmania would be the perfect place to do that.

So in January 2008 we both travelled to Tasmania a number of times to assess the different areas we could move to, work options available and most of all to check out the weather conditions. We both agreed that we would be happy to move almost anywhere on the island. Our next big hurdle was trying to find some where to live and also some way to move our whole life over the water.

It was during this searching that we becamse aware of just how hard and expensive the move could become. We emailed and called a huge number of removalist places, before we stumped across Dial a Box. The idea is that they drop off a shipping container, you pack it and then they pick it up, sail it across the ocean for you and take it to your new home. Once there they leave the container with you for a few days (can be longer if needed) and you unpack everything yourself. They then return and remove the conatiner and its all over. it means you hve to put in the hard yards yourself and pack everything so that it withstands the movement and all of sailinga cross the ocean, but it can save you an absolute fortune. We know because it saved us over $2500 on the lowest quote we had received from anyone else, and believe me we had over 30 quotes.

So with a way to get our furniture across the water, we just had to find some where to move to. As luck has it we found the most beautiful little town in the North East of Tasmania and on the 13th of April 2008 made the journey across Bass Strait on the day sailing of the Spirit of Tasmania II bound for our new home.

We arrived in Davenport at 7pm and headied straight on through Launceston to our new home town. We spent a few nights on the way to getting to our home in the Imperial Hotel at Branxholm. It is a beautiful hotel full of character and charm. Established in 1907, and with unique timber benchtops in the bar, plus fabulous meals (and cheap too), We would definately recommend that if you are ever passing through  you drop in and enjoy a counter lunch or pub meal.

After some delays caused by Quaranteine wanting to inspect our container, we where finally able to unpack on things and set our new home up late on Tuedays night. We were so eager to get everything out of the container, that we kept unpacking until just after midnight. Being on 5 acres the noise in no way distrurbed our new neighbours, which was great. Finally at lunchtime Wednesday we has everything inside and could start to really put things away.

So the journey has begun and now some three months on we are settled in our new home and wondering why we never made the leap earlier to live our dream. But here we are, moving forward and loving every minute of it!