Well I've gone and done it...
 

I'm leaving for Australia 30 Oct 2005, after 18 years of wanting to do so.

I'm touching down in Brisbaine, but I've left options open to travel anywhere within the country.

Any suggestions, insights, warnings?

Watch out for dingos -- especially if you are bringing babies with you.

If someone dares you to box a kangaroo, just walk away.

Are you into Wine?

The Barossa Valley should be a great area to visit if you do.

Remember to check which direction the toilet water goes in when you flush.

Be wary of guys that look like this:

Eat at the Outback Steakhouse. They have great steak there.

Watch out for the movie Razorback.

If you watch it .. you will become royally pissed.

don't fly Oceanic

Well, depending on where you want to go ....

Syndey has the opera house, you do a "bridge walk" - scale the harbor bridge, take a boatride around the harbor, and of course there are several nice beaches (although I'm told Melbourne has better ones).

If you're into diving, go up to Cannes and take a excursion out to the Great Barrier Reef (snorkeling is pretty good there too).

It's a pain in the butt to get to, but you can go to Ayer's rock. It gets old in a few days, but there's some nice geological sites out there and there's nothing like doing a dinner under the stars in the dessert.

Watch out for a guy named Quigley...I hear he's mean with a .50 caliber at long range!

Cheers!

Grrrrrr, I'm a gangsta! I mean Aussie.

Put some shrimp on the barbie.

duh

Ask to get a pint of Foster's at a local pub and then run when the bartender threatens to kick your butt!

Well Queensland is rugby country so be prepared to start rooting for the Broncos of the NRL. Aussie Rules is a great sport if you can put a bit of effort into learning the game (the Brisbane Lions won the Grand Final in '01, '02 and '03).

For a nation of drinkers they brew an astonishing amount of crap beer I'm afraid - Toohey's is OK though.

Aussies are good well-intentioned folk who will give you a fair shot but they very sore losers so be sure to mention The Ashes cricket series whenever they start telling you they are the sporting capital of the universe. :D

You are a lucky lucky person. I will be going out there Nov 12th for a break and plan on making a permanent move 3 years from now. Very best of luck to you and please keep us informed how things turn out.

I want to move there permanently too, so this will be my first foray into seeing if I can handle it.

That's Austria..

I got worms.

Watch out for the Drop Bears. Always wear a hat with a hard brim on it when in Drop Bear territory.

Whenever you can say "I'm Paul Hogan, beotch!"

When you get down there, don't forget to say "hi!" to Kosta for the rest of FOFC.

If you see these numbers while on the plane (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42) don't believe for a minute that they could be retired Yankee players.

But if you see them, well I guess you'll be.....LOST!

No advice, except to say "don't watch Wolf Creek on the flight over".

Congrats, and the best of luck! I'm very jealous!

What specifics do you want to know about - food, cities to see, accomodation, etc. ?

I'd definitely second the idea of seeing the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns.

Let me know if you end up in Sydney as I'm 100 miles ( or 160 km ) north of it.

I need clarification here - are you moving to Australia, or just going for an extended visit?

Pick up a hooker, aren't they legal down in the oz?

There isn't a better place on Earth for girl-watching.

if you're out in the water look out for white sharks!

Don't compare knives with the locals.

You need to go find that Aussie chick that posted here for a little while and make her yours...

We had an Aussie chick here?

Yar.

http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~fof/foru...hp?userid=2818

I see you've played 'knifey-spooney' before

Brisbane (pronounced Brizb'n if you don't want to be instantly recognised as a newbie) is a great place to start particularly at this time of the year. Could get very hot later on (Spring here now but soon we're into summer). Sydney would be your next destination. The biggest and probably the most entertaining of Aussie cities. Hire a car and drive down there from Brisbane. There are some great stops on the way.

If you come over to WA give me a call and I'll buy you a beer ;)

Dude, she's from New Zealand. That's like calling a Canadian American.
(But then, technically a Canadian is American, as is a Brazilian American, as is an American American. Damn, so confusing...)

Oh, well...that doesn't change the fact that Qwik needs to find her and make her his. He just needs to make a short side-trip to do it now...

You're finally going on the walkabout? You're really doing it! Have you told Helen?

Dude. Thats my sister.

Post.pix.pls.

Well my first suggestion would be to make sure that your flight to Australia connects through New Zealand and then get off in Auckland and actually see a real country. With no hazardous insects or animals whatsoever (on land at least) and no Australians, we have everything you need right here.

If you insist on going to the worlds largest ever jail, then I can recommend Surfers Paradise (hour? south of Brisbane). SP has fantastics beaches and is a new enough city that there is absolutely nothing cultural to do. This means that you can drink, eat, stay at the beach all day, shop and go to theme parks without any guilt whatsoever that you have not gone to the local art gallery, museum or old church. And the parking wardens are gorgeous women in gold bikinis that walk around town putting change into your parking meter encouraging you to stay a little bit longer. If you make it into Crazyhorse, say hi to "Ashley".

If thats not your thing then Melbourne is a fantastic city for art, culture, history, gothic style victorian architecture, passionate dedication to sports, fantastic cuisine, great markets and good wine.

Tasmania is your third choice. Everything is a little bit slower here and the Tasmanians really dont give a toss what happens on the mainland as long as the mainlanders dont come over and fuck everything up for them. Tasmanians avoid Australians nearly as much as New Zealanders do. It is a beautiful state, heavy in Agriculture, Forestry and going huge into adventure and eco-tourism.

My top tourist thing to do in Australia:

The Bay of Fires walk. Just incredible. Eco-tourism with great food and wine.

Everything else is too hot (Western Australia, Northern Territories) or overcrowded with Australians (Sydney) or plain boring (Adelaide, Canberra).

But really. Fuck all that and come to New Zealand. We just smashed Australia in the Rugby League on the weekend 38-28 played in Sydney. We smashed them in the Rugby and we smashed them in the curling.

And dont forget: home of the Colossal Squid.

kiwiDE57

Quality.

Or someone from the Nederlands German. :eek:

A guy I went to school with went to Australia on vacation a couple of years ago and didn't come back. They got him on some legal technicality and threw him in prison and threw away the key. So watch out for that.

(The legal technicality they got him on was that he stabbed somebody.)

Don't plan on stabbing anyone.

Thanks for all the tidbits.

I will be going to Surfer's Paradise, since that is where my cousin is.

I plan on going to Sydney, I do not know if I will have time to make it to Melbourne.

New Zealand will have to happen at another time, but if I like Australia, and I can stand the flight, I have no qualms about returning but this time for Auckland.

I also plan to hit on as many girls as I can, I wonder if anyone has info on that ;)

Thanks again, two weeks to go!