judyq Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Hi, been back a month now and spinning but thought some people might find our report useful, I know i have really enjoyed reading other peoples. We departed on feb 13th from london, first stop Brisbane, we flew china airlines, to be honest for no other reason than it was literally half the price of all its competitors. They get a bad press but were fine, seemed to have all the services, films etc from other flights i have been on. Not posh but fine. well worth saving two grand! I should introduce us, me, my partner and our three children aged 1,4 and 7 !! needless to say the trip was not relaxing !:eek: They were good kids on the plane and we had a bassinet for the baby which really helped. Stayed initially for ten days on the gold coast. Cheap but nice apartment in broadbeach near surfers.It was a little tired but clean and dead cheap. Had the lot including pool. I was amazed at how much i loved the gold coast, had been once years ago and not keen but it was great fun.Lovely weather, loads to do and i particularly loved the area's away from surfers such as curumbine and thereabouts. Could live there in a heartbeat!! the kids adored it ! My o.h looked for jobs in her speciality and had a look around and a visit but looks like jobs don't come up that often which was very disappointing. Last job that came up ten people applied! She is not on the skills list and we are appying for defacto as i have an australian passport so are fortunate that we can go anywhere. we drove down from the gold coast and had an idyllic two days in byron bay before stopping for three nights in port mcquarie. We stayed in a caravan site there and i would really recommend this to anyone, wild parakeets in the morning!! Beautiful. Drove down to sydney for the rest of the month. Had a shock there. Found out my oh could not work there as her job does not really exist in the same form. That was a shocker and wish we had researched better before planning our reccie ! Was really suprised to find my feelings had changed towards sydney.Loved it when i worked there years ago but that was as a single younger woman. Found it too cityish and big, with dreadful traffic!Not great for kids. Also found we could never afford to live there. Had a great time, went to mardi gras, visited beautiful beaches, coogee in particular but realised could not live there!Maybe its an age and stage thing! So home we came and it has been a whirlwind!! Made our mind up that we definately want to do it but feel cheated that we did our reccie in two places we cannot go !! With the benefit of hindsight should have included a trip to western australia as that is where we are now looking.!! What did we learn ? We absolutely love australia,:biggrin: my partner had never been and was blown away by its beauty and cleanliness. We both could not believe how friendly everyone was, compared to the uk. My health was so improved, i have arthritis and my joints were so much better, i cut down my pain meds by 50 per cent and swam every day!!so it is the place to go for a better future, at least for me ! Cost wise ? there is no doubt that things are more expensive. We shop cheap and found that a weeks shop was a about 120 dollars compared to 60 pounds here. However in my opinion the cheap stuff was better value and good meat and wine a lot cheaper. We also found that k mart was cheap for bits and bobs...body board 4 dollars! Beer was silly money!!Petrol of course alot cheaper. We felt the money even's out as we spent so little in the day and everywhere had clean and free barbies in parks and by beaches so could take our food and drink and spend the day there. It was amazing to see the children body boarding and swimming everyday,especially coming from a cold long winter! Sorry this has gone on a bit but really wanted to share our story so far! So now starts the long process of visa application. Just a word of caution, if , like us, you are not rich think really carefully about if you need that reccie! We had a ball,caught up with friends and of course now know its the right thing to do but the downside is we have spent alot of money just when we need it ! Good luck to everyone and thanks to all for sharing your stories and insight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest destinationoz Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Great report! Good luck to you both and your kids! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GoldCoastMag Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 At least you found out about the job opportunities before you arrived expecting to settle. It would have been another expense to move interstate after emigrating and now you can spend some time researching while the application is pending. Good luck and hope you find the right place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Ropey HOFF Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 We stayed on the Gold coast for a month last April and................... it was fantastic. The warm weather was just what the doctor ordered after 6 months of freezing uk winter weather and as you say swimming everyday and being warm and relaxed made us feel alive and healthier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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