The End of the East Coast

After two long months on the road, with nothing but a suitcase, backpack and a gradually decreasing bank account, our backpacking journey of the East Coast in Australia has come to an end. There’ll be no more weary morning checkouts, or sixteen-bed room shares - no more noodle dinners, chocolate biscuit breakfasts or McDonald lunches. No longer will we have to sleep curled up in the seat of a Greyhound bus for thirteen hours, or drag all of our worldly belongings behind us as we race to the bus station. But don’t let that put you off, because it’s safe to say that these have been the greatest two months of my life (cliché, sorry!) 

After quitting my job, saying goodbye to family and friends and moving myself over to the other side of the planet, I was soon doing things I could have only imagined. I’ve jet boated around Sydney Harbour and seen where Russell Crow lives. I’ve had surfing lessons from the best instructors in Australia, Mojo Surf, and I’ve hiked through the Blue Mountains with a friend of Steve Irwin. I’ve had a top-notch dinner at the top of Westfield Tower and been able to watch so many incredible sunsets in so many different, beautiful places. I’ve visited Steve Irwin’s zoo in Brisbane, canoed around the everglades in Noosa, and gone camping on the amazing Fraser Island. I’ve sailed around the Whitsunday Islands, slept under the Milkyway on a racing boat, visited the third most beautiful beach in the world and gone snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef itself. Last week I even jumped out of a plane at 14,000ft and did my first bungee jump. So yes, it’s been a pretty great couple of months!

We've Booked!

'Come fly with me...'

So happy to finally say that after what feels like months and months of planning and talking about what we were going to do, Jack and myself FINALLY got around to putting our deposits down with OzIntro, applied for our work visas and booked our flights. It’s been a tricky process, with a ton of e-mails, phone calls and ‘reconvening’ Facetime sessions in-between, but thanks to the ridiculously helpful people at Gap Year Travel, we managed to find a changeable return flight with Emirates for just £900 and a discounted ten-night voucher for Base Backpackers Hostels, which are situated all over Australia. Admittedly, the pain for my bank account is far from over, as we still need to buy our travel insurance and pay off the rest of the package costs with OzIntro, but in all honesty I’m just excited to start thinking about the real issues - like what do I wear on the plane?!

Shopping Around

Just a few of the options available to you

If like me, you’re choosing to go travelling with the help of a company and organisation, such as Bunac or STA Travel etc, it’s vital to look around and conduct thorough research before making any big decisions of who to go with. After aimlessly typing “working in Australia” into Google one day (no doubt I was probably sitting in a lecture bored at that time), I was overwhelmed by the amount of results and the vast number of choices available. For the first-time traveller, such as myself, I was looking for an organisation to fly out with, something that would introduce me to living in Australia and would eventually get me on my way to working and earning out there. Of course this isn’t everyone’s first choice. A lot of people don’t see the sense in paying £400/500 to get ‘settled in’, when they could just book a flight and work it out for themselves for free when they got there. That’s all well and true, but for those of us that like that little extra bit of security and forward planning, these are just a couple of the great options available...