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Events in my life led me to the decision to leave home for a year and backpack Australia. I applied for my working holiday visa from the government web sight http://www.immi.gov.au/ and got approved almost immediately. When coming to Australia you are suppose to have either a return ticket home or $5000 in your account so you have enough to get by. I had neither lol I don’t know if they even check all they did with me was check my passport and I got another stamp. If you are going to Australia for a year backpacking I would suggest just having a one way ticket. Because you are most defiantly going to move around and you never know where your going to end up so might as well leave it, and take care of it prior to leaving the country, don’t worry you have time.
I had never been traveling by my self before, But I am an out going person and never found it hard to make friends and doing fun and out going things is what I enjoy so I made a quick decision to pack up my backpack and move to Australia for a year. I was extremely nervous about the move and how it all worked. So prior to going I was doing research on where to start and how to go about everything. Every time I googled Australia this web sight would always come up for www.ultimateoz.com.au and they were exactly what I needed they set me up with an Australian bank account, tax file number (number which you need to work in Australia), sim card for my phone, and the resources to look for jobs and apartments, and on top of all that you got to travel around Sydney for a week with others from all over the world doing the same thing. I figured it was a good way to ease into moving to the other side of the world knowing no one, and it was absolutely amazing!
When I took my flight from Vancouver to Sydney it was a 24 hour flight with a stop over in Shanghi needless to say I was exhausted by the time I got to Sydney but I was so excited to be in Australia It was January and the middle of summer. I caught the public transit to the down town area and checked into Wake up hostel in the middle of the city. It is one of the hostels that is on the more expensive side but it was super clean, it was busy and they always had some form of entertainment happening at the pub down stairs such as trivia, happy hours, karaoke.In my opinion backpacker bars are the best bars to go to, drinks are generally cheaper everyone is up beat easy going and have a lot of travel stories as they are doing the same thing you are. A really good web sight to find hostels is www.hostelworld.com they have ratings on all the hostels in what ever city it is your going to and they rate every hostel on:
Character
Security
Location
Staff
Atmosphere
Cleanliness
and then there is an overall rating, I like using this web sight to find the good hostels at the price I want to pay. The 2 main things I look for is cleanliness and character because let me tell you I have stayed at some less then desirable hostels and bed bugs freak me out so cleanliness is #1 and also Character because I like places that are going to be memorable and fun. But this sight has a fee for using it and the prices tend to be a little more expensive by a few dollars, so I would see the ratings of hostels and then go on the actual web sight for the hostel I liked and get it for a cheaper price. If you are looking for a cheaper type of accommodation check out www.couchsurfing.org it is an amazing sight that lets you crash at peoples places for free, most of the time they will give you the local perspective of what ever city your in which is always nice!
Money, of corse I brought Australian money with me when I came to the country but when that ran out I needed to transfer money which is not cheep and international money transfer will cost roughly $50. $30 from my Canadian account and $20 from my Australian account for receiving it. But I learned that Scotiabank (Canadian bank) and Westbank ( Australian Bank) have a partnership. You can put your Scotiabank card in a Westpack ATM and get Australian money from your Canadian Account with no transfer fees! and vice versa if you have a Westpack account and you put it in a Scotiabank ATM you get Canadian money from your Aussie account. Doing this will save you a tone of money!! but if your not with these banks there is always Western union, as well as most banks will have an international money transfer online but again very expensive.
Transpiration in Australia is really good! You can take the trams, trains and busses everywhere, and are generally easy from the airport.
In
Sydney it is divided into 3 sections and a ticket is $2.20 for an adult or $1.10 for Concession (student) for one zone. You can buy tickets just about anywhere any corner store or transport station. Tip in Sydney if you are younger you can purchase a student card you don’t have to prove you are a student when purchasing it and it is half the price but in saying that if a tram police asks you for your student ID you may get a fine if you don’t have one. In saying that I lived there for 4 months and only bought student passes and I was lucky enough to never get caught.
In
Melbourne they have a different system they have MyKi cards which will set you back $6 just for the card and then you have to top it up. Which is annoying for the weekend traveler you can buy these cards from major tram/ train stations and it is more expensive it is $4.30 for an adult and $2.15 for concession for one zone. They are more strict on public transit here. But you can also hop on the trams without ever paying but again if you get caught with out touching your MiKi card it is a $207 fine but depending how much you travel it might be cheaper to take your chances......
Cairns is small and you can pretty much walk anywhere you need but if you are looking to go some where maybe a little further out side town busses have a main stop in the down town area.
Traveling in between towns grayhound is very useful they run regularly all over the country and you can buy different passes. A popular choice is the travel and accommodation pass, you can travel all over the country taking the grayhound and also staying at Base hostels, YHA hostels and Nomades hostels. Getting 10 nights accommodation.
When it comes to packing we want to prepare for everything and we want to bring every article of clothing possible, just in case. I can assure you this is not nessary. I have been traveling for a year and a half and pretty much have the same cloths I came over with and some of my stuff I don’t end up wearing. I found this sight handy http://outfitposts.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/summary-one-suitcase-beach-vacation.html#.UM8Ux2letyE
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