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Bettey Kay than Kway!
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Jan 2, 2011 15:43
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What websites are best in Australia for booking holidays? Looking to book an all-inclusive package to Fiji for 4/5 days
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Jan 4, 2011 03:23
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If you're in a decent sized city then I think just going through the major travel agents could get you the best deal. Most of their websites tend to aks you to email or contact a store anyway so why not just drop in. I see the south pacific/fiji ones advertised all the time on the back of the travel section in the newspapers as well. I went on one of those with the family years ago. Was awesome and very cheap for a 5 star resort. Do you know of any around? Fists Up fucked around with this message at 11:24 on Jan 4, 2011 |
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Jan 4, 2011 11:21
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webjet.com.au are best for flights, I think they might do holidays too. If not try expedia or virgin holidays or flight center.
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Jan 4, 2011 11:49
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Also want to chime in with nothing but positive things to say about Australia. Had a fantastic time diving in Cairns and ending the trip for NYE in Sydney. Took the advice to avoid the normal police controlled areas and had a decent view of the bridge without the retardedness. Met some chill Aussies that took care of me all night. QLD floods look terrible...my thoughts are with all affected.
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Jan 16, 2011 07:06
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Anybody have any thoughts on how to go about volunteering for flood relief? I'm an American with an Australian dad, but have never made a proper visit to the motherland, and wonder if maybe this would be a good starting point to make the trek (save for finding some sort of work over there).
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Jan 25, 2011 20:01
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I did a semester abroad in Melbourne (RMIT) a few years ago, and loving fell in the love with the country. Planning on moving there with a friend on a work holiday visa (from the US), we both have $6,000...probably going to stay at a hostel and grab either retail or telemarketing jobs. Does anyone currently living in Melbourne know how the retail job market is? I'd kill to be able to work at a clothes store or something instead of making calls all day. Thanks!
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Jan 26, 2011 17:37
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lokk posted:I did a semester abroad in Melbourne (RMIT) a few years ago, and loving fell in the love with the country. Planning on moving there with a friend on a work holiday visa (from the US), we both have $6,000...probably going to stay at a hostel and grab either retail or telemarketing jobs. Does anyone currently living in Melbourne know how the retail job market is? I'd kill to be able to work at a clothes store or something instead of making calls all day. Thanks! My girlfriend and I moved to Melbourne together 2 months ago. We both have one year work/holiday visas. I was able to find a job as a cook a week and half after I started searching. I have experience so that helped, but there were tons of job ads on melbourne.gumtree.com.au (as people have mentioned). My girlfriend had waitressing experience and it took her about a week to find a job at a decent restaurant. We live near Chapel St. and we have seen a lot of Help Wanted signs in shop windows. I think you should have a very easy time finding retail work, especially if you plan on being in the country longer than a couple months. Once we had jobs and employers that could vouch for us, it only took us another week or so to find an apartment. I have a friend who does casual work at a retail shop and she makes $20 an hour, and that's what my girlfriend makes as a waitress. Good luck, but I imagine you'll find work in no time.
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Feb 4, 2011 03:29
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Does anyone here have any experience with finding work in chemistry or (especially) pharmaceutical sciences over there? The pharma industry is imploding badly over here, and it'd be neat to spend at least a few years via skilled professional visa working over there. I've found a few openings at companies in Brisbane and Port Fairy, but I'd like to find out whether USA applicants even bother getting looked at before I waste my time. 
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Feb 8, 2011 18:30
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If you come to Brisbane, I'd gladly sit down with you and bitch about the corporate world. Love that thread. Generally for full-time positions it's always better to be a permanent resident/citizen (especially for Government positions, I think it's required), but to be honest it doesn't hurt to just ask, either the recruitment agency or the HR department for the company that you're interested in. Most are quite happy to answer your call, simply because it means someone is reading the ad and justifying them placing it in the first place (probably bonus points for being overseas interest).
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Feb 10, 2011 14:00
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lokk posted:I did a semester abroad in Melbourne (RMIT) a few years ago, and loving fell in the love with the country. Planning on moving there with a friend on a work holiday visa (from the US), we both have $6,000...probably going to stay at a hostel and grab either retail or telemarketing jobs. Does anyone currently living in Melbourne know how the retail job market is? I'd kill to be able to work at a clothes store or something instead of making calls all day. Thanks! I'm a bit late to the party on this post, but you will have no trouble getting a call centre job. In fact, several Melbourne agencies which lease call centres (meaning companies set up a centre, organise the staff and then lease their services to whoever needs a call centre- called a "project") specifically target backpackers and people in your position. I've lived here 4 years and first lived in a hostel when I moved from Brisbane. Myself and all my new international friends, them with no tech or call centre experience, landed jobs in the second week with no problems. Look for a company called "salesforce". If you're american you probably won't believe how well paid such an unskilled job is. You'll be inbound, not calling out to sell things, the shifts are flexible but in my experience it's a reasonably mind numbing job. You shouldn't have any time landing a retail or hospitality job if you're reasonably personable and can talk to people and sell yourself but you could always just treat the salesforce job as a stepping stone. It'll pay the rent, you can both work together and use your browsing time to apply to other jobs. seek.com.au is the predominate job listing site and there are squillions of no experience office call centre jobs listed all the time. They expect high staff turnover at these places so if you quit you won't make any enemies. Also worth mentioning is that Melbourne office jobs are completely run and staffed by employment agencies. When you reply to a job listing most of the time you will be interviewed and managed by an agency, not the actual company. The advantages of this are that if they place you, it's in their interest to place you somewhere else if you leave. They can be pretty handy. If you want, I have some friends working phone support for electrical companies. It's not bad pay. I've gotten other people a job before there so shoot me a message if it sounds up your alley and I'll see what I can organise for you over the internet(I am in europe now). edit- yes, you did say you wanted a retail job, sorry. Carpet bomb clotehs stores with resumes, give them to the manager, not some casual staff. Give it to someone who wants your shifts and it goes in the bin, especially in hospitality. Dont just drop it off, say hi to the manager, shake their hand and ask if they're looking for anyone. All my backpacker mates who could look someone in the eye and make conversation got jobs in various clothes and shoe stores in a week. bitmap fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Feb 28, 2011 |
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Feb 28, 2011 00:37
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I will be heading to Australia for a month here shortly. One thing I found out is that my cell phone will not work anywhere in the Country. So I was looking into getting an international phone and I found these guys: http://www.telestial.com/ Has anyone had any experience with them? The prices look very good for what you're getting. Happy to entertain other suggestions as well, just need basic cell service, thanks!
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Mar 25, 2011 01:25
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Macintyre posted:I will be heading to Australia for a month here shortly. One thing I found out is that my cell phone will not work anywhere in the Country. So I was looking into getting an international phone and I found these guys: If you just need the phone for Australia access just get a pay-as-you-go SIM card when you are here. These can cost as little as $2 or $30 if you want some minutes (Optus). This will allow you to make Australia calls easily and just use skype for calling home.
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Mar 25, 2011 07:09
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Vanilla posted:If you just need the phone for Australia access just get a pay-as-you-go SIM card when you are here. These can cost as little as $2 or $30 if you want some minutes (Optus). Half the major carriers in the USA don't use GSM, and as such their phones don't have SIM cards. I have no experience with that telestial company though, sorry.
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Mar 25, 2011 14:20
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Even if you need a phone, you can buy one for under $AU100 from supermarkets. Probably could line one up on a travel site or something for cheaper (in fact, if you come to Sydney I can give you a Nokia that's ~3 years old for free).
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Mar 26, 2011 05:43
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NoArmedMan posted:Even if you need a phone, you can buy one for under $AU100 from supermarkets. Is everything really that expensive? Is the U.S., I could buy an AT&T GoPhone for $20, and it probably already has $10-20 in call credits on it. Are there protective tariffs on most of your imports? Have you seen the cost of imported consumer goods drop as the Aussie$ gained value? On a related note, what happens when you use your stronger dollar to buy American goods over the Internet? Is the shipping cost prohibitive? What costs get added at customs (GST, other import fees)? If I were to be living in Oz, would I be able to get my Mom to ship me smartphones and video games and laptops in a box marked "cookies" and not have it confiscated?
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Mar 26, 2011 12:03
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goku chewbacca posted:Is everything really that expensive? Is the U.S., I could buy an AT&T GoPhone for $20, and it probably already has $10-20 in call credits on it. Yes, things will be comparatively expensive. That said, I'm sure you could get a phone for much less that $100. quote:Have you seen the cost of imported consumer goods drop as the Aussie$ gained value? On a related note, what happens when you use your stronger dollar to buy American goods over the Internet? Is the shipping cost prohibitive? Hopefully some else can answer the rest, but as a general rule don't label anything you want to go through the post as "cookies". Lizard Combatant fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Mar 26, 2011 |
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Mar 26, 2011 12:15
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goku chewbacca posted:Are there protective tariffs on most of your imports? Have you seen the cost of imported consumer goods drop as the Aussie$ gained value? On a related note, what happens when you use your stronger dollar to buy American goods over the Internet? Is the shipping cost prohibitive? What costs get added at customs (GST, other import fees)? If I were to be living in Oz, would I be able to get my Mom to ship me smartphones and video games and laptops in a box marked "cookies" and not have it confiscated? In order: No, yes, it's a lot cheaper, no, and GST is added if things with value over $1000 are shipped (see more info at http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page5549.asp). Yes you could lie, but it might also get confiscated. Online shopping from overseas retailers is very common here, and that's only becoming more the case what with the Australian dollar being worth more than US dollar at the moment. Often it's far cheaper for us to import goods than it is to buy identical goods here.
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Mar 27, 2011 02:10
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Another question! I will have 5 days to kill up in the Cairns area near the end of my stay. Having said that, I'd really like to get as many views of the Great Barrier Reef as possible. I already found a small charter for snorkeling only, but I am having trouble doing the same for SCUBA. Anyone know of or have any experience with small SCUBA charters in the Cairns/Port Douglas area? All of the ones I have found are like 200+ people, which isn't any fun.
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Apr 4, 2011 01:24
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We went out with Poseidon cruises, it was pretty good. 3 different reefs throughout the day, you could either snorkel or scuba at all three. They leave out of both Cairns and Port Douglas I THINK. There were maybe 100 people on the boat, but only about 30 that scuba dived. Saw a huge maori fish, sea turtle, a little shark and my mom who went snorkelling saw a hammerhead (she got a photo of it, too)
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Apr 4, 2011 03:37
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goku chewbacca posted:Is everything really that expensive? Is the U.S., I could buy an AT&T GoPhone for $20, and it probably already has $10-20 in call credits on it. Some random things are stupid expensive seemingly just because it's Australia. Some things are expensive because they are catching up to the fact that like ten? give or take years ago the dollar could have easily been around 50 cents, now it's above the USD, so things like jeans in America which you can get a decent brand for 30USD are still 50-60 here. Electronics tend to be stupid expensive but some stores are getting better. Shipping stuff isn't too bad anymore. I get heaps of poo poo shipped from the US/UK free/almost no cost. Don't get your mum to label it cookies as it'd probably get searched for food. Probably clothes? I dunno. They can search and if it's a game that is 'prohibited' under our classification system (not many but quickly- the new mortal kombat for instance is) I have heard that it will be considered like you are bringing illegal material into the country (illegal as in not classified by our ratings board- the other things that don't get classified is things like child porn, beastiality, etc) however I really don't see that happening. Be something to think of though, they have no qualms checking your poo poo.
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Apr 4, 2011 13:33
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teacup posted:Don't get your mum to label it cookies as it'd probably get searched for food...they have no qualms checking your poo poo. This x100. They're more likely to open the package if it seems like the contents don't match the declaration. That said, in all my years of buying crap on eBay, I've had one box opened because it was labelled as containing knives, and certain types of knives aren't allowed in. (Mostly flick knives and spring-loaded ones) If they do sieze something, you'll usually just receive a letter where you can opt to have the article destroyed, or returned to the sender. Both at your expense, of course.
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May 11, 2011 02:17
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SquallStrife posted:This x100. They're more likely to open the package if it seems like the contents don't match the declaration. I had something held for about 12 weeks because it said "Remote Timer" on the package. It was just a thing for my camera but I think customs thought it was a bomb device. It came from Hong Kong and i got a refund because I thought it had gone missing but then it turned up randomly one day with it looking like everything had been ripped open.
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May 11, 2011 02:32
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Fists Up posted:I had something held for about 12 weeks because it said "Remote Timer" on the package. It was just a thing for my camera but I think customs thought it was a bomb device. Well yeah, they're generally pretty good, but as with any Government department, there's no shortage of retards.
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May 11, 2011 05:00
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SquallStrife posted:Well yeah, they're generally pretty good, but as with any Government department, there's no shortage of retards. Customs aren't "generally pretty good".. they're fundamentally retarded. I had a pair of ceramic mugs intercepted and destroyed because the handles were shaped like knuckle dusters. The only way to get them back would be to appeal, apply for a license to import a section B weapon from the police and front up to court to appeal it. Some serious bullshit going on for $20 worth of novelty mugs.
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May 12, 2011 07:19
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I posted this with its own thread, but didn't receive a response. That being said, do any of you know anything about the Australian working holiday visa? Specifically wondering what the job search is like. I'm fine with a menial job like pulling pints.
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May 13, 2011 04:28
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xcdude24 posted:I posted this with its own thread, but didn't receive a response. That being said, do any of you know anything about the Australian working holiday visa? Specifically wondering what the job search is like. I'm fine with a menial job like pulling pints. More than half of the bar staff, call centre staff etc we have in Sydney must be backpackers. Lots of cafe waiters/waitresses etc too. So yeah, shouldn't be a problem.
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May 13, 2011 06:29
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xcdude24 posted:I posted this with its own thread, but didn't receive a response. That being said, do any of you know anything about the Australian working holiday visa? Specifically wondering what the job search is like. I'm fine with a menial job like pulling pints. Seems every pub, restaurant and hotel in Perth (and every other major city I've been too, and some minor ones) is full of folks on a working holiday visa. I know a guy with a pub, seems to always be on the lookout for reliable folks to work the place and travelers are high on the list.
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May 13, 2011 17:22
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PuntCuncher posted:Customs aren't "generally pretty good".. they're fundamentally retarded. I dunno, they were pretty cool about not charging me duty on my computer when I mailed it to myself, which they could have.
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May 13, 2011 18:17
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Bar staff/waiting would be very easy to come by. Same with a dead end retail job.brendanwor posted:More than half of the bar staff, call centre staff etc we have in Sydney must be backpackers. Lots of cafe waiters/waitresses etc too. So yeah, shouldn't be a problem. Dont forget that literally every person asking for money for charity on the street is from the UK.
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May 16, 2011 04:49
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My sister is doing her last semester in Australia (Sydney), and I'm going to visit her in June. I'm only there for a week (I know, too short, but it's all I can afford schedule-wise at the moment), and we're trying to figure out a good short touring plan. She was suggesting some driving up the gold coast, visiting Fraser Island, Whitsundays, Cairns. Some combination of driving and flying, but I'm returning from Sydney, so I have to end up there at some point. Having never been to Australia, I have no idea what the best options are for my short time. One note is I desperately want to dive the GBR. It seems like the Cairns / Port Douglas area is the place to be for that. Can anyone recommend a good site and/or dive shop? (I'm a PADI advanced diver btw). Is the Skyrail worth it while we're up there? Any other hands-down must-sees between Sydney and Cairns? Is it worth it to take the time to drive up the coast? I'm sure it's gorgeous, but I just did the whole pacific coast highway thing, and while I'm sure it's different, if I'd be better off spending my time somewhere else, I'd be curious to know.
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May 16, 2011 16:47
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TheDude42 posted:My sister is doing her last semester in Australia (Sydney), and I'm going to visit her in June. I'm only there for a week (I know, too short, but it's all I can afford schedule-wise at the moment), and we're trying to figure out a good short touring plan. It'd be worth it, but driving Gold Coast -> Cairns in a week would be really stretching it if you wanted to see anything though.
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May 17, 2011 14:04
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TheDude42 posted:My sister is doing her last semester in Australia (Sydney), and I'm going to visit her in June. I'm only there for a week (I know, too short, but it's all I can afford schedule-wise at the moment), and we're trying to figure out a good short touring plan. Don't bother driving or trying to see too much, you simply don't have the time and Australia is too big. If I was you I'd just spend maybe 3 days in Cairns/Port Douglas and 4 days in the Whitsundays (maybe Hamilton Island) chilling and diving at the reef. And make sure you fly there.
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May 17, 2011 14:44
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I think you really have a choice - fly to Cairns/Whitsundays as others have suggested, or spend your week driving Gold Coast to Sydney, which is a pretty nice drive and will get you to your destination and have some time in the Gold Coast, Sydney and everywhere inbetween.
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May 18, 2011 06:25
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Along the coast, Sydney to Cairns is about 2600km - 1600-ish miles. Same as Manhattan to Houston. Sure, it's doable in just a few days but there's not much point in coming to Australia just to drive and not really see things along the way. One week, Sydney to Cairns... 3 days in Sydney (it is a beautiful city), 4 days in and around Cairns, fly between the two. Easy!
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May 18, 2011 08:05
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By the way it's a bit cold in Sydney at the moment (65F during the day down to around 45F at night) so you'll probably prefer Cairns if you like warm weather and beaches and poo poo.
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May 18, 2011 08:19
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If you're planning on doing diving on the Reef, head north of Cairns to Port Douglas. The area of the Reef around Cairns has been heavily touristed for almost 50 years and the coral has suffered accordingly. Further north around Port Douglas it's in much better condition. Make sure your boat is going to the outer reef and try and get on a smaller boat - one with only 40-60 people. Some boats take hundreds of passengers and while it's still safe and regulated, it's pretty much cattle class. One company (I forget the name) even built a permanent pontoon with a net, restricting you to a small area. Honestly, avoid staying in Cairns if you can. I found it a pretty boring soul-less place that, aside from the palm trees, could've been anywhere in Australia. Also there's no beach in Cairns. Stay further north around Palm Cove or Port Douglas. And yeah like others have said, driving from Sydney to Cairns in a week is doable but won't be much of a holiday. Spend a few days in each and fly between them. The flight is only a couple of hours and you can get budget tickets from Virgin or Jetstar for pretty cheap prices. Bear in mind that those are discount airlines, so if you want anything beyond a chair and a seatbelt like drinks or a blanket you'll be paying extra. vv loving freezing for us, but probably quite balmy to someone used to cold climates 
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May 18, 2011 08:52
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brendanwor posted:By the way it's a bit cold in Sydney at the moment (65F during the day down to around 45F at night) so you'll probably prefer Cairns if you like warm weather and beaches and poo poo. Its been loving freezing lately.
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May 18, 2011 08:57
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webmeister posted:The flight is only a couple of hours and you can get budget tickets from Virgin or Jetstar for pretty cheap prices. Bear in mind that those are discount airlines, so if you want anything beyond a chair and a seatbelt like drinks or a blanket you'll be paying extra. Might not be relevent in this case, but just a note for anyone else wanting cheap fares. Tiger Airways is almost always the cheapest carrier, but is generally a piece of poo poo. As I fly between Melbourne and Sydney a lot, I look up the Tiger Airways flight then look up a Jetstar flight that leaves within the same hour (has to be within the same hour), then call Jetstar and get them to price match. Not only do they price match, but they minus 10%. Last time I traveled, Jetstar was going to cost $69 each way, per person. Tiger had a sale on - $39 one way, $1 back. I got Jetstar to price match this, so instead of my wife and I paying $276 dollars return to Melbourne, we paid $72. The more you know!
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May 18, 2011 09:00
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NoArmedMan posted:Might not be relevent in this case, but just a note for anyone else wanting cheap fares. Tiger Airways is almost always the cheapest carrier, but is generally a piece of poo poo. As I fly between Melbourne and Sydney a lot, I look up the Tiger Airways flight then look up a Jetstar flight that leaves within the same hour (has to be within the same hour), then call Jetstar and get them to price match. Thanks for this, will have to remember that!
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May 18, 2011 09:22
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