HarrietteH

Thank you for everyone's responses, some have been really helpful. It's not so much a whinge but just something I had thought about since our return to the UK and I just had to ask. You hear a lot about the wonderful, sugar-coated experiences that some have had but not so much about the experiences on the other end of the scale.

Hello everyone, I wasn't sure where to post this so I hope it's okay here :smile: I've tried having a look through the forums to find a post like this but I can't seem to find one so I'm sorry if this has been asked before. A few years ago my husband and I visited his brother and family who live in Australia. We were only there for 2 weeks but we loved it and were determined to head back over. Our initial plan was to head over on a WHV for a year, see how it all went and do some travelling before making the more permanent move. We did endless amounts of research, saved a ton of money and gave up our jobs and our home and headed over there May 2016. We absolutely hated it. The hostels were unclean and unwelcoming (We weren't expecting 5-star but we're talking cockroaches in the kitchen, blood on the bed-linen, threatening behaviour etc). Job hunting was a nightmare and we had almost no interest from any employers (we got mixed messages on this one - we heard that there was a recession in some parts of Australia so jobs were extremely hard to come by, we then got told that job-hunting is different than the UK and you constantly have to chase employers for any progress and then we got told that jobs should be easy to come by especially as we were applying for and willing to do pretty much anything :huh:). Accommodation was expense, the cost of living was astronomical and when the weather was bad, there didn't seem to be anything to do. Money started to run out and so did our patience. After about 5 months, we decided to throw in the towel and return to the UK. My husband's family were insistent that we were making a huge mistake returning home, that we would regret it and Australia was wonderful and we hadn't given it a fair shot. We don't regret returning home by any means, I suppose my question is - has anyone else had an experience like this? Do you think we gave up to easily?