![Felix, Erika, Tom, Lena, Patrick and Gabriel Reuter at the Warrnambool Grasscourt Open. Picture by Anthony Brady Felix, Erika, Tom, Lena, Patrick and Gabriel Reuter at the Warrnambool Grasscourt Open. Picture by Anthony Brady](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/156072998/2d8d57b1-7dc0-4932-8796-a306c43c4c72.jpg/r275_0_5443_3935_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Three months into a year-long Australian adventure, the Reuter family is enjoying its first Warrnambool Grasscourt Open.
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Erika and Patrick Reuter, along with their children Lena, 13, Felix, 12, Gabriel, 10, and Tom, 7, moved from Bordeaux, a port city in France, to Melbourne in mid-September before deciding to add Warrnambool's four-day tennis tournament to their summer holiday plans.
Erika said the tournament was recommended by their coaches at Aspendale Tennis Club.
"They said it was a big social and family event so we could all do it," Erika said. "We're all basically doing it apart from our daughter.
"We're travelling around the coast - we wanted to see the Great Ocean Road and we have a van. This morning we saw our first koala so we got really excited. We've really enjoyed it."
With eldest daughter Lena - an avid ice skater - watching on, Felix, Gabriel and Tom contested the 12 and under and 10 and under boys' competition this week. Meanwhile Erika and Patrick were among the men's and women's social draws and couples' doubles competition and teamed up with Felix and Gabriel respectively for the parent-child event.
The idea to move to Australia came after German-born Patrick, a professor and researcher, got a working opportunity at Monash University while Erika, who is originally from Canada, took a sabbatical as a communication manager at ESTIA. The children have already started school in Melbourne.
"The main goal was to discover something different and for the kids to learn English," Erika said of the overseas move. "It's so far working really well and the kids are even getting the Australian accent."
Erika credited the team at Warrnambool Lawn Tennis Club for a well-run event, along with the friendliness of Australians.
"We've participated in tournaments back home and we're really impressed," she said. "Everything is so well-organised and the people are nice. We've met a lot of people from all around."
She said the family wasn't used to Warrnambool's big open spaces.
"We've been to the big park," she said. "It's very green. We're used to a very small area in France so it's not all green. We're not used to big space. It reminds me of Canada."
While this week is all about tennis, surfing is another of the Reuter family's loves and another draw-card for moving to Australia. They plan to relocate to Mooloolaba in April to see more of the country and explore the Sunshine Coast's surf beaches.
The final day of the Warrnambool Grasscourt Open starts 9am Saturday.
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