Sydney – 1 Month in!

[Boznich]

This forum was so helpful during my visa process I thought I would share my experiences so far. I am on a 457 visa and started work almost straight after my arrival. So we arrived a Sydney one month ago, had some UK prescribed meds, ticked the customs forms and went through something to declare, they asked a few basic questions and we were in Sydney!!

 

Accommodation – We pre booked some temporary accommodation for 5 weeks in the Northern Beaches (many sites like Stayz, AirBnB, Home and Away) which all went smoothly. Then the house hunt began! We were looking for a rental and the market moves pretty quickly in our experience. Group viewings generally take place a couple of times a week on Wed/Sat. A couple of tips, (1) get a 1form account setup with your 100 points of docs uploaded, (include some references! 2) you can’t really get an idea of location etc. until you get here so don’t set your heart on a particular property – we did and when we viewed them we discounted them immediately. Once you have viewed a property and when you are 100% sure you should submit the 1form to the rental company ASAP. Once you are accepted the process is all very quick and easy – much simpler than the UK! Yes prices are higher out here generally and are quoted in weekly amounts but note you pay a monthly amount which is note Rent x 4. It seems that most apartments include main bills (council tax equivalent, water, building service ‘Strata’ fees) – all we have to pay is electricity and gas. Broadband is expensive and not super-fast. You can get the local equivalent of Sky plus (Foxtel) which is good value but to be honest we will be outside most of the time J. Many houses we saw were single glazed, not central heating or aircon – it may get a bit chilly in the winter.

 

Weather – So much sunshine! We had two weeks of sunny spring, a stormy week followed by temps in 30s. Even when its cloudy it’s still bright. Sun lotion is very very cheap from the big supermarkets so I wouldn’t bother bringing any with you. It’s a marathon not a sprint so out on the lotion.

 

Prices & Lifestyle – We live in Manly which we love, but the whole Northern Beaches are stunning. We are in are 30s and love the beach, restaurants and bars here, so many nice places to eat (not just in Manly) to enjoy the day and night. The food and service is really good everywhere. I think you need to check out the places to live that suit you, Manly is for us but may not be for you. We have not purchased a car yet so use a go get service which is a shared car scheme – its great!

 

We were surprised that you can BBQ from your balcony – its great with a few bottles of wine and beer when the suns shining. BBQs are surprisingly expensive we got a small but good quality one for $500 – that was one of the cheaper ones (the shops favour the huge ones).

 

The exchange rate is pretty dam good but you have to base it on your earnings here in Sydney. We come from London and groceries seem to be about the same or even cheaper. My only gripe is that draft beer is served in 33cl glasses and cost the same as a pint!

 

Missing home – not really its only been a month… of course I miss all out friends and family, especially our regular meet ups down the pub but we are enjoying what we have here. With all social media it kind of feels like our mates are just down the road. Cant wait for them to visit.

 

Well that’s it from me but I hope you get the opportunity to move to Oz – its great!

[calNgary]

Thanks for the update and its great to hear your settling well.

 

Cal x

[Paul1Perth]

I think you were ripped off for the barbie mate but nice to hear you are enjoying it. Manly is great and if you can afford to live there it's a wonderful spot.

[jumpingjellybean]

use a go get service which is a shared car scheme – its great!

 

I have not yet used it. But got the brochure and seen many "Go Get" cars parked on back streets around various suburbs. It is a brilliant idea.

[Boznich]

I was sceptical before hand but yeah it's brilliant. Just register once with your driving license, choose level of membership (i pay a small monthly fee), they send a card in the post after a couple of days which is used to unlock the cars on the windscreen.

 

Prebook the car of choice by type and location on the app or website, min two hours hire, go to the car and tap the window with the card and off you go. It cost me $6 an hour plus 40c per km or the daily rate with150km included) - if its a low on fuel theres a fuel card on board - too easy

[Boznich]

Also to add to my moving experience post i have a comment on shipping.

 

We used the sevenseas medium move cube service, great price and was able to bring loads of stuff. Shipped on 3rd Setp and arrived last week in great condition. 24hr customer service and you can track the ship online. My only comment is that if you are not brining furniture like us and you plan to buy stuff out here (prices are generally very comparable), we didn't actually need to bring too much (we have no kids so its just extra clothes, tv, pics etc) - we now have loads of clutter! But still highly recomended.

 

Still loving the life out here, walks on the beach, beach volleyball, ferry to work, great food and bars, palm trees, relaxed life style etc etc. If only all our friends could move with us!

 

All th best to you all.

[Guest]

Glad things are going well. Its lovely when your stuff arrives. We used a movecube also, tho a large one and a few bits of furniture went in it was mostly personal effects. They are fab to use for that sort of thing IMHO.

 

We have a Weber Q, a fair size one and it cost around $600-700 iirc. If you got something like that to BBQ on you can't go wrong I reckon.

[jumpingjellybean]

We live in Manly which we love

 

So what can you recommend there?

 

I hear the Manly to Spit Bridge walk is good. I have done part but never done the whole thing.

 

Is the Aquarium worth a visit?

 

Is the Adriano Zumbo bakery / cake shop still there? Someone told me it had closed.

 

What eateries or bars would you recommend in the area?

 

Why do you like Manly so much?

 

I like it for itself, but finding a parking spot in summer is very hard.

[Boznich]

Hi Jumpingjillybean,

 

We personally love Manly as we work in the CBD and whilst it's so close to the city it has more of a laid back town vibe, great surroundings to get back to after work and go for a walk up to Shelly beach etc. Love the local beach and its the gateway to the stunning Northern beaches, I personally just enjoy the surfery beach bum life style. It can be very touristy on hot days. We lived in surrey and worked in the city so didn't fancy living in the middle of the CBD. Only thing is we were not so keen on the price of property! We're lucky as we have a sea/harbour view apartment which you pay a premium for but love it so far! Yeah parking can be tight, but we have a underground parking space which is useful for friends, storage and when we get a car. However, we are high up in the block and face the beach - so it can be pretty windy up here, even when on street level its not windy - so have not managed to many bbqs on the balcony yet - but summers yet to arrive!

 

So many things for us todo, places to visit, bars to have a beer! So yet to do the spit bridge walk, everyone raves about it. Acquarian worth a visit on a rainy day, better if you have kids as they would enjoy it, our visit only lasted 40mins (we took the 4pm discount rate), we enjoyed their Little Manly penguins up close, we have seen some in the wild.

 

Not sure about those places but our favs are In Situ, Manly wine, Chica Bonita, Manly Wharf Hotel, Garfish, 4pines, Hugos, Daniel San, Papi Chulo, the Pantry etc etc etc. Love all the happy hours as well! Recomend these all.

 

Love going beach hopping at the weekend right up to Palm beach (and beyond to the central coast), feels so green and tropical up there.

 

I guess the only thing thing that surprised me has been the weather. NOT to say the weather is bad at all but i didn't realise how changable the weather is in Sydney in terms of temps, rain and wind. To counter that, its much better than the UK, I wear shorts most days, the sun usually gets out at some point even when its crapp, oh and even when its a dull overcast day (not many of those) you still need Sunnys. The summer is yet to come as well ?, so lucky.