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Hey everyone,
My fiancee and I have decided to change things up in our lives. I have been working at a sleep clinic for a number of years and i'm really starting to hate nights.
So we have talked about this for a while, and it seems like now is the best time for us to travel. We are both 26 years old, no children, no house payments. We both have some funds saved up and we decided that we are going to move from London Ontario to Australia for 6 months - 1 year on a working holiday visa.
We are flying into Cairns and are fairly open to where we will be travelling/working.
I was just looking for literally any advice about travelling/working, cities to stay in, cool things to do from people who have experience with this sort of thing. I have never really experienced any adventure like this and I know it will be exciting - I just want to make the most out of it while we are there.
Thanks 
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Australia is a cool place to visit and travel. The classic and typical adventure is usually down (or up) the coast. There are plenty of good backpacker places all along the coast and quite a few good times to be had. Depending on what you are into you may want to differentiate the party backpacker places/scene from the more sedate places where you can still have a good time, but have time to chill too if you want. The age range where you are at is usually a big factor, I find.
I'd suggest starting at Cairns and working your way down to Melbourne or Adelaide. Then a trip inland to Alice Springs (to see Uluru) before heading up to Darwin and down to Perth. There are opportunities to go inland too, rather than just hang out in the coastal areas. I spent a few months in Mildura (inner Victoria) working on some vineyards. Hard work, but good times. There are similar opportunities in all the states. More white collar work is available in the major urban centres (Brisbane, Sydney etc).
Good to hear you are doing something like this. You and your fiancee will enjoy yourselves, no doubt!
Oh, yeah. And if you have a couple of months handy, head over to NZ and check it out too. I'd recommend the summer months, if you can. There are few places better than NZ (especially the south island) in the summer time (specifically Feb - March).
Good luck!
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if you want partying, east coast.
if you want more peace and quiet and 'real' Australia, west coast.
Always be prepared to change your plans, especially during the Australian summer. Hurricanes and bushfires aplenty.
How are you traveling? Some of the caravan rental places are looking for backpackers to drive their cars back from one-way hires, I have found a campervan make the experience a lot nicer. During the summer months, you will need aircon in the back to be comfortable, though.
If you want to do some fruitpicking, I can recommend the odd place on the east coast.
If you ask some more concrete questions, I think I could give better answers.
Tasmania is a nice place to visit as well.
As to Cairns: The most backpacker friendly city of Australia I have been in. Around 40 different backpacker places, most of them have a free phone line active at the airport, you just call and they send a shuttlebus to pick you up. Some offer free meals as well, and organize pubcrawls and the like. There is a national park (or reserve?) right at the edge of town, nice hiking there, if you are lucky, you'll see a cassowary. No beaches in Cairns though.
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Thanks Guys,
We know someone in Port Douglas , so we will likely be staying with her for a few weeks. We also have friends just an hour outside of Melbourne and other in Canberra - who we could possibly stay with - although not likely long term. We applied to one of the resorts around Uluru to see if they were taking people as we wouldn't mind staying there - working 6 months doing day tours ect. then hitting up the East coast to spend some of our hard earned cash.
Another idea we were thinking of maybe renting a place for a bunch of weeks somewhere where we could have a semi-stable job (likely a room share type thing to keep the cost down) and then travelling from there. Is this at all possible? We kind of don't want to spend our whole trip living out of our backpacks although if it came to that I'm sure we would be fine.
One thing is that I am a fair skinned ginger child and I was wondering what the cost of sunscreen in down there compared to here - and if they have some of the nice and high SPF's to keep me good.
aZealot - My fiancee's cousin is getting married in February in NZ so its likely we will be going there sometime around there - depending on our situation in Australia.
Rimstalker - We haven't really thought about how we are travelling - but we will definitely be looking for ways to get around fairly cheap - I think we'd rather spend our money doing tours ect than getting from town to town ( I'll take a look around for caravan rentals for sure - Thanks!). Also what is the fruit picking like down there? I would have no objection to doing it, however I'm not sure if my fiancee would.
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Not in Cairns itself but once you venture outside the township, the attractions are there. E.g. Green Island is a must see destination around Cairns area, there is of course the reefs and far north Queensland.
Cairns itself is a pretty depressing place, with the declining of tourism and high Australian dollars, the place has never being quieter.
For Queensland, I'd suggest avoid gold coast and go straight to Sunshine coast / Noosa, much cleaner and family friendly, better beaches as well imo.
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On June 24 2013 17:17 blazzerg wrote:
Another idea we were thinking of maybe renting a place for a bunch of weeks somewhere where we could have a semi-stable job (likely a room share type thing to keep the cost down) and then travelling from there. Is this at all possible? We kind of don't want to spend our whole trip living out of our backpacks although if it came to that I'm sure we would be fine.
You can find shared accommodation very easily but then again it depends on which city, area etc... expect to pay $200+ per week not including bills in any major cities Mel/Syd/Brisbane/Perth
Hit up uni, network yourself with people you meet doing whatever you are doing. Don't even bother going to real estate agents, rent is crazy and they reject any who is not ready to sign 1 year lease, chances are you will have more problems without residency.
You could try renting a holiday house in some of the towns, they are easier to get.
One thing is that I am a fair skinned ginger child and I was wondering what the cost of sunscreen in down there compared to here - and if they have some of the nice and high SPF's to keep me good.
Cheap as chips. The thing is you don't really need sunscreen all the time, all the Southern states like SA, Victoria, Tasmania you will be okay, only use it during the extreme heat period during summer (Around Christmas/Newyear).
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You can find shared accommodation very easily but then again it depends on which city, area etc... expect to pay $200+ per week not including bills in any major cities Mel/Syd/Brisbane/Perth
We should be fine with that - In Canada we were paying $1000 rent a month and we were expecting to pay anywhere upto 150% more in australia.
Cheap as chips. The thing is you don't really need sunscreen all the time, all the Southern states like SA, Victoria, Tasmania you will be okay, only use it during the extreme heat period during summer (Around Christmas/Newyear).
Maybe you fail to understand the severity of the situation I am talking about - but I can burn in 2 hours of cloudy overcast weather! I'll need to lather that stuff 3 times a day I imagine
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as to the stay somewhere for a long time, make small trips: look into wwoof-ing, but most of those places are a bit outside, so you'd need a car.
you can buy up to sunblock factor 50 in Australia. Plus special hats that cover the necks, all kids are wearing those when they go outside during school time.
going round for cheap: Not sure about gas prices in Canada, but Australia is somewhat expensive, and the further out you go, the more expensive. In some remote places, you'll pay almost two dollars for one litre.
Fruit picking is hard work. If you have doubts about your girlfriend, then it is not for her at all. A lot of people that WANT to do it fail.
For shared accommodation I'd recommend gumtree. And expect horrid conditions if you want to be anywhere close to the center of the big cities.
And don't be too surprised about bedbugs in hostels.
Many people actually buy cars and sell them again when they leave. Cairns might be a good place to pick up someone else's car when they are leaving.
Generally, flying and long distance buses are fairly cheap, what is going to kill you are the tours you are talking about. Expect upwards of 100 dollars per day per person. And that is something cheap, just in a bus, staying in hostels or on farmstays. Exotic stuff like helicopter flights over the bungle bungles will cost you a nice chunk, quick search showed up to 1000 dollars per day.
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On June 24 2013 19:22 balls516 wrote:
byron bay for sure
I'd recommend a google picture search for that, then judge by the results you are getting if you want that 
west coast, you get this. Note the number of other people on that beach, and also note that this is not sand, but tiny sea shells.
![[image loading]](http://abload.de/img/img_11816upkv.jpg)
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Please for the love of god don't turn out to be like 1 of those Americans who compare literally everything they encounter back to the states....
"Oh back in the states we have XXXX that you don't have here"
"You aww-zees call it a YYYY but we call it a XXXX "
etc etc
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Bearded Elder29905 Posts
You just watch out for those gigantic spiders and You gonna be fine.
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On June 24 2013 21:19 fearus wrote:
Please for the love of god don't turn out to be like 1 of those Americans who compare literally everything they encounter back to the states....
"Oh back in the states we have XXXX that you don't have here"
"You aww-zees call it a YYYY but we call it a XXXX "
etc etc
I didn't know they had states in Canada. I guess that's cause they call them Provinces in Canada. We don't have those in the states.
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When are you looking at arriving?
Remember our seasons are opposite here so right now it's Winter.
6c here last night in Melbourne but its warmer further North.
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When are you looking at arriving?
We plan on arriving on September 4th!
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Byron Bay is alright, but Sunshine Coast and Noosa are better. Oh, and yes, avoid Gold Coast if you can - unless you are into that sort of thing, of course. I agree with Rimstalker on the fruitpicking work too, especially if your fiance is not into it. It is hard work and often piece work (i.e. you get paid for the buckets you fill). You'll get smoked by the experienced seasonal pickers, and it's not a nice feeling doing a long day in the sun with not much $$$ to show for it.
Speaking of the sun, good sunblock, a wide-brim hat, long sleeves, pants, and you should be fine.
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EPT
