So, for the first time in my life (im 21) i am in a position where i can save to go travelling which i have wanted to do since i can remember !
I've been tied down with work and boyfriend .. but not any more time to do what i want to do ! I have no plans of yet - all i know is that 100% i will be getting on a plane in january of 2013 heading to australia/newzealand......i want to travel, meet incredible people, and get some work after a month or two. i want to do all the ussual things, see all the usual places ... one thing i will be doing is heading to the snow for a few days - if you cant snowboard then i can teach you .. besides that im open to do anything.. anywho the reason i made my own thread is that these forums confuse the hell out of me i find them incredibly hard to keep track off. If you want to chat more and help each other plan then add me on facebook:
- anna 'christiana' wilson
- leeds
x
Thousands and thousands go to Australia for work, often fruit picking. Some are disappointed as there are only so many jobs, and it is hard work for little money.
Do not think you can do a little work, spend the rest of the day on the beach and the evening enjoying the nightlife.
You might try a work agency in a big town. You will of course need a work visa.
To get a good priced flight, book in the next few months.
Oh hi!
Sounds wicked! Quick question - Where have you looked at to go Snowboarding? I am flying out early October and am a big fan of Skii-ing (Did try snowboarding but I genuinely must of ploughed into hundreds of people, including small innocent children, so I did the right thing and stopped aha!). Would just be interesting to know a good spot to go.. Not sure if they have the same system as the slopes in France but I am used to the red slops for skiis.
Sounds like you have the right mindframe for it though! I cannot wait to go, I am in a similar boat, first travelling experience to be had! I am 21 from Eng (Buckinghamshire).
Can't really help you with much as I have not gone yet lol but any genuine travel chat im on Facebook under Mark Buckingham under Long Crendon x
Hi Mark !
I have to admit - I have only ever had the opportunity to board at a place called xscape near me - has real snow but ive never had the chance or ever been anywhere abroad to board which is why im desperate too. So i guess im no use there really haha and crikey im the other way round i tried skiing and nearly flattened everyone on the entire slope so i tried snowboarding and loved it !!
What are your plans then ? where are you heading?
I tried to find you on facebook to no avail haha ... be nice to have as many ppl as poss to compare travel notes with and if your off out before me i can steal tips of you. If you can find me on there then awesome ... if not looks like we are stuck with this haha
Ello!
Oh right fair enough! I have one of those near me but have not been. ahahaha, that's what appeals to me is watching people fall over and stuff, I literally laugh at everything..
Well I decided I wanted to go travelling a month or so back and decided to just sell my car and save a few months wages and fly out around October, as I really want to be settled in working in Australia and spend Christmas at Bondi beach, as it's like the place to be!! and then I can bugger off an explore!! muwhaha! I do plan on working out there as I want to stay for a year or two!
Starting in Brisbane (Surfers paradise), and work my way around from there, I have a friend who at some point I was going to meet for a road trip, probably at the start of next year, who's arriving into Darwin so that will be fun!
That's about it so far, I am the sort of person who likes to plan as I go, I hate following a script and like to free roam as I please, But I am a bit of a thrillseeker so want to do lots of stuff like Skydive/bungee/surf etc! and of course meet lots of people!
Fair enough, I will have a look later, I am at work at the moment :'( x
anywho the reason i made my own thread is that these forums confuse the hell out of me i find them incredibly hard to keep track off.
Sorry for going off-topic, but I've seen this sentiment come up a few times lately, and as an old-skool forum user (not to mention having been here on travellerspoint for 7 years now (wow)), I find it hard to understand this; the forum metaphor is just too ingrained in me. Could you try to explain how you would expect to keep track off things here, and in which ways the forums are confusing you? I think I can give you some tips to make it easier here to follow things as well, but first I'd really like to understand how you're experiencing things. (There's a good chance the admins could be convinced to make things behave more as you expect, too. A big benefit we have over facebook is that the people running this site are actually heavily involved and really listening to us, the users.)
Anyway, some random notes on Australia and New Zealand (I spent a year each in them, and then a few more weeks a couple of years later). Australia is huge; transport costs will be a major factor when there, whether flying, bussing, training, renting cars for short periods or buying a car for the long haul. Don't underestimate these costs! New Zealand is comparatively tiny, but has nearly as much going on. It's really a hugely diverse country, with a range of landscapes and activities almost as vast as you can find in Australia; just with them being 1-2 hours driving apart, rather than 10-20 hours. So don't underestimate New Zealand, and be sure to spend more than a token amount of time there, particularly if you like hiking or generally being out in nature.
Hostels in both places are filled with fellow backpackers all doing their own trip of a lifetime. Don't worry about doing expensive organized activities or introduction packages to meet other travellers - you'll be chatting with them in your hostel's kitchen or lounge right from the start. Sydney, Auckland and Melbourne in particular are filled with people just off the plane, all trying to figure out how they're going to get around and what to take care of first. Plus there'll be lots of jaded backpackers who're just finishing up their year and will be quite willing to get down to giving you some specific advice rather than having to go through the "where are you from, where have you been, where are you going to next?" routine one more time.
When staying in dorms, be considerate. Make your bed when you arrive so you don't have to do that in the middle of the night. When going out late, bring a small flashlight so you don't need to turn on the big light when returning. Don't keep stuff in crinkly plastic bags; they're noisy!
The north of Australia (say from Brisbane upward) has two seasons: wet and dry. The wet runs from December through March, and suffers from horribly humidity to torrential rains. So that's a great time of the year to be down south. Australia doesn't do winter (excepting Tasmania), but Australians also don't believe in it, which means isolation and heating aren't always up to par. 5 degree Melbournian July nights are mighty cold. (Not a problem in hostels, but definitely a consideration when looking for apartments if you've found work and are intending to stay for a few months.) New Zealand has the common seasons you'll be used to from the UK, though on the North Island, and particularly in Auckland and further north, most days remain very pleasant even in deep winter (10-15 degrees; sometimes with sunny days reaching 20 in the Bay of Islands). The South Island of New Zealand is generally the more beautiful, with the Southern Alps running the length of it and really shaping it all. (Here it'll freeze a couple of degrees at night in winter, and the mountains will be gorgeously covered with fresh snow.) The North Island has more culture, plus volcanism.
Get a backpacker card; YHA, VIP, BBH (New Zealand), or ISIC (for students). They'll give you significant discounts on transportation, plus some random extras. The first three are associated with hostel chains/organizations, giving you a discount on your stay at those hostels; their discounts are effectively indistinguishable (making a membership pay back for itself in ~10-15 days), so which one to get depends on which type of hostel you prefer; YHA (Hostelling International) is the biggest worldwide hostelling organization, with an idealistic slant (non-profit). Their hostels tend to be clean and quiet, though the bigger ones can feel sterile and institutionalized; I liked that their hostels frequently had entire families staying in them (though the majority of guests were of course still the 20-30 backpacker crowd). VIP has more party hostels, either spotlessly clean or rather rundown (little in between that I've seen). BBH is local to New Zealand; frequently more alternative or family run, with some really nice places belonging to them.
My favorite places in New Zealand were Fox and Franz Josef glacier (on the west coast of the south island; wonderful hikes through the rainforest right next to the glacier), Mt. Cook national park (on a rare day when Mt. Cook itself wasn't obscured by mountains), Tongariro National Park (the Tongariro Crossing is one hard slog, but immensely rewarding), Auckland (yes it's just a city, but there was always so much going on, and I really liked its parklike quality and many interesting neighbourhoods), and above all Lake Tekapo (a glacier-filled lake in the middle of the Southern Alps, with an unreal blue color, and an awesome YHA hostel sitting right on its shores, with huge windows to sit behind and gaze out over its waters and unwind for a few days; also amazing hot chocolate at the observatory on top of the hill next to the lake).
In Australia I am most partial to Tasmania (it's like a light version of New Zealand; particularly Cradle Mountain National Park), Sydney (particularly the Glebe neighbourhood; almost bohemian), Melbourne (there's not that much to see as a tourist, really, but it's an amazing place to settle down at as a local; great cafes and live music scene), and really the entire area around Melbourne (Grampians National Park, Wilson's Promontory, and of course the Great Ocean Road). I quite liked Cairns and various other places on the east coast as well, but for some reason they didn't really speak to me that much. Perth I thought boring, though the region south of there was quite worthwhile.
Hi Christiana!
Cool to see that you want to follow your dreams now, like me! I will be in Australia in september and will be travelling alone, I'm going for a year
You should teach me how to snowboard since I have no clue how to do that!
I might see you around there!
Sander,
I'd hope that after 3539 posts you would be comfortable enough with using these sites but for us newbies it poses a few challenges to get our heads around
At the end of the day - facebook for me is simple ... i can talk to people on the messaging in real time so it feels more personal... And lastly id hope that if people had simmilar plans and wanted to find out a bit more about me as a person and get to know me that facebook is for me significantly better for doing so than on here. Forums are good, they are useful but for me; a little impersonal
On another note though you clearly can give me and others brilliant advice on how best to travel and where to go and im sure if we have any questions you are an ideal person to ask. Thanks for the tips above, cant wait to go, it seems alot more real now than it did a few weeks ago !
Dann89,
I am going to follow my dreams like you, now is i believe the only chance i will have whilst im young to do this, its terrifying but im sure it will be entirely worth it
If your off for a year then im sure our paths could cross and again you will have to let me know if poss how it goes so i know what to expect !!!
And certainly if you want to learn and your in the mountains at the same time i can show you the ropes .... but as i said above i have never boarded on real mountains i learnt on real snow indoor centres .. not quite the same haha !
x
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