Australia, AU

destination

Australia

If we wanted to start living in Australia for a year we needed a visa. We chose for the working holiday visa because that visa allowed us to stay in Oz for 1 year, working and traveling. We were only allowed to work 6 months for the same employer, and if we did 3 months of farm work we could apply for a second working holiday visa. Getting the visa was quite easy (depending on where you are from): we applied and had it the next morning. From the moment that it is approved you have one year to go to Australia and you can stay for 1 year from the moment of entering. During our first year in Australia, we traveled a lot, but also did all kinds of different jobs. We especially looked for farm work, just in case if we wanted to stay another year. There is a harvesting line that you can call and they can set you up with farm work. Many backpackers do this though, which made it a bit harder to find a job, so we had to call every day for opportunities coming up. Fortunately, we found a few farm jobs in order to get our three months signed off. We picked raspberries, tomatoes, apples, and grapes and we also worked in a packaging shed. Some jobs were terrible, like the tomatoes. After half a day we earned 30 dollars each… Of course we didn’t stick with this shitty job. Another experience was working on a remote farm in the outback of Queensland. It was a nice place, the facilities were great but you could notice how unsocial the farmers were, just not used to people. We hated to work for them, but we were running out of time for our farm work so we had to…

Perth, WA

destination

Perth

The second year, we wanted to work for 6 months in Perth so we looked for an apartment as well, but this time for our own, since the shared house wasn’t really our thing. It was, again, really easy to find a place. Within a few weeks, we had a lovely 1 bedroom apartment close to the beach and with a shared pool! We met some lovely neighbors and living there was super nice. This way, we got a real feel for the true Aussie lifestyle. In the end we almost stayed for a year as told above not everything went to plan.

Sydney, NSW

destination

Sydney

The first year, we started in Sydney and made our way down to Melbourne via the coast and the Australian Alps.

VIC, Australia

destination

Great Ocean Road

we drove the Great Ocean Road towards Adelaide and went up North straight through the middle. In the outback, we took an off-road path: The Oodnadatta Track which was such an amazing drive. We visited Uluru and Alice Springs in the middle before we arrived in the tropical North and went up to Darwin. From there we went to the east coast and back down towards Sydney with all the awesome places in between. It took us a year, but as told we worked as well. It was a road trip we will never forget!