Philippa.

We read on many travel blogs and Facebook travel groups ‘Australia Backpackers’ (i highly recommend you join it if you're planning to travel Australia)  that most travellers & backpackers wish they had completed their second-year visa work in their first few months in Australia. For those who don't know - if you're on a working holiday visa 417 in Australia, the government awards you a second year visa if you complete 88 days, or three months of rural work. This work can include farming, harvest work, mining and fishing etc. Most backpackers & travellers we have come across opt for farming/harvest work as this is the most accessible, and doesn't necessarily require any particular skills or qualifications (although some might come in handy, e.g. forklift license, construction, cattle farming etc).

So, with this in mind, Adam and I decided to apply for farming jobs. We applied to every job vacancy on Gumtree and backpacker websites that proposed work in rural areas, and of course paid a decent wage. We waited over two weeks and heard nothing, we had a few calls from agencies who offered work but wanted money up front for hostels costs etc. Some travellers have told us that they have stopped in a hostel for weeks before finding any work, thus having to pay the hostel for accommodation. There is work out there without having to go down this route. 

In the meantime we bought a car (Honda CRV '98), which we love and has taken us over 12,000 kms in two months without fail (touch wood). We bought some camping gear to travel around with tent, stove, chairs etc. We decided to travel Australia by camping quite early on as we compared how costly staying in hostels might be to camping. So, with a lack of job offers coming through our door, we decided to head to Torquay in South Australia to try out our camping gear and see some surfers in action.

Torquay was very cold, cloudy and to some extent rather romantic. For the most part of the first day we sent setting up our two-man tent. In hind sight we realised how stupid we were to think that our two man tent would be comfortable enough to pop-up and sleep in, let alone pop-up and live in. We took a long stroll around Torquay beach and did the really British past-time of eating fish and chips on the beach, except we did this while watching some surfers. The cold nights drew in fast and we soon realised that we were amateurs at camping.  The second day we explored the town and by five o'clock it was dark. I flicked on my mobile data and received a gumtree reply from a woman named Sue! Finally we had a job offer, and it was only 1,332 kms away in New South  Wales....

These are just a few things me and Adam noticed when we arrived in the first week: 

1) In Britain we have rules on our Motorway that “most” of us stick to. Here, they don’t work the same, people speed down any lane that they see fit, really fast. Also, be aware that there are a lot of lanes and if you’re going to be coming off the Highway soon I suggest you MOVE! Move into that exit lane ASAP, or you WILL be heading somewhere miles (sorry - Kms) away. 

2) Aussie’s love AVOCADOS! This is really great news if you love them too. However, me and Adam are not huge avo lovers and they appear on EVERYTHING. Sometimes you just want a plain chicken sandwich, is that too much to ask for? 

Okay, so I used to say that flying to Australia was ‘JUST a 24 hour flight’, oh how I was wrong. You forget when you’re planning your journey across Planet Earth to account for the rest stops in-between your journey, and the delays you most likely will entail. But, more importantly, you forget to account for the time difference and how this may affect your body. For me, the jet-lag was really, really bad. I struggled to stay awake (even after hours of sleep) I could barely communicate with people, I felt incredibly sick and couldn’t stop shaking. I initially thought I had caught a cold from the plane journey, but a quick google search suggested otherwise. Unlike most travellers, I was lucky - I had somewhere safe to stay where I wasn’t in a dorm room with 5-10 other people. This meant that I could spend some time trying to get through the jet lag; all in all this took around two weeks. 

During this time, me and Adam were trying to get used to our surroundings. Its a strange thing waking up to an Australian accent when you’ve spent 23 years of your life waking up to a very broad Yorkshire accent. I also hadn’t seen my Dad in over 2 years (a lot of catching up as on the cards) and Adam had never met my Dad before. 

Me and Adam considered ourselves really lucky that we had a base here in Australia, especially for the beginning of our adventure. My Dad and his wife helped us settle in to the Australia lifestyle and made sure that we had all the right things to hand to start us on our journey, e.g. bank cards and *medicare cards. For a lot of travellers & backpackers coming here they’re thrust into a new place. They have to land on their feet immediately and be ready to figure their way through the big cities. Many of them don’t speak fluent English and have to learn fast. I have read first hand about backpackers who have really struggled with the transition to backpacker life. I sometimes wonder if me and Adam missed out on this, but looking back at how ill i felt i would have probably tried to quit before i even started. Plus, who, in their right mind, would give up a comfy bed, heating (in the winter) good food & family, for cold, crowded, hostel rooms? not me...

Or, as the Aussies say, ‘WELCOME TO 'STRAYA’! I am beginning this blog from an apartment in a very sunny, central Brisbane. We are three months into our Australian adventure. It will probably take me a few blog posts to actually catch up to where we are now, but at least you know for certain that we’re both alive and haven’t killed each other, yet.

My blogs will primarily document mine and Adam’s travels around Australia but will also include ramblings about everything from family, friends to things I generally like to discuss or as Adam puts it things 'I like to moan about’. This blog will also save Adam a lot of earache, as I spend most of the day yapping to him about almost anything I can think of.

So here it goes…

After a very long, delayed and claustrophobic 28 hour flight (supposed to be 24) me and adam arrived in Melbourne on an unexpectedly cold evening. We started our journey from Manchester airport on a mildly warm English summer day. Two weeks before we left Sheffield we had a leaving party and family, friends and colleagues wished us well for our journey to the other side of the world (literally). But there, on the 1st July 2015, stood our families and friends ready to wave us off. We both scattered to customs to avoid having a emotional breakdown and changing our minds about our travels. Once passed customs we waited to board our plane. Adam spent most of this time hugging me because I saw a girl with similar hair to my sister (they didn’t even lookalike) and so I couldn’t stop crying.

Once we boarded the plane I cried a few more times; this drew the interest of other passengers; I wondered if they thought Adam might be attempting to take me away against my will - if they did, they did nothing to stop him. We set off.

All of the excitement leading up to this point plummets to the earth when you think about what you’re leaving behind - family, friends & nice jobs. For the first three hours of the journey I sat with a puffy, red face. We both flicked through the on scree entertainment and I read the laminated emergency landing card more than I should have. We both tried to sleep but as most flyers know this is very uncomfortable and sleep is almost impossible. For what felt like only 40 winks, a hostess woke us up for food. Now, looking back, we shouldn’t have made a preference for Hindu meals; although they were delicious, our food arrived long before everyone else’s, therefore we had to wait for other passengers to finish their food before the hostess would come around collecting rubbish, so then you’re stuck with that annoying tray.

Once we landed in Dubai, our change-over time was three hours so we thought we would have enough time to relax -this was not the case. The shuttle driver spent 20-25minutes shuttling us from our plane to our gate. Once there we went through a security control, it was a long process but obviously a necessary one. By the time we arrived at our gate I decided to buy a bottle of water, I then walked 100 yards to the gate security and my bottle of water was removed from my bag! This made no sense as the security woman watched me purchase it. We only wanted the water because we drank less that a litre of water between us in 7 hours, even though we repeatedly asked for more. On the second half of the flight we slept. We woke up a few times in between the flight for food but before we knew it we were landing.