Australia

Coming by flight from New Zealand it was the second amazing country on my trip around the world. Again I only had three month and the weather conditions were still good, I decided to stay in the South of Australia, but starting with the Island of Tasmania – halfway between New Zealand and Australia, even it is a part of the Australian Authority.

You have to know a lot about arriving in Australia and it is necessary that you have a visa. For European citizen it is easy to ask for a visitors visa. You can make it online https://www.border.gov.au/ and if you only will visit the country it will be free of charge. Furthermore it takes only up to a day to get or to be declined a visa. Mine I have got very quickly, what I was very surprised of. I never have been in a country where things were done so fast, but the “Police Conduct Certificate” on Malta. On the named site you also can get to know a lot more about arriving in Australia, for e.g. that you are not allowed to bring fruit into the country.

Other things you have to think about before travelling abroad, you can read at the site for preparing your trip for New Zealand.

By the way in Australia it is allowed to volunteer even for people 60+, what you have to know about it, you will find on the page Volunteering.

Meanwhile I entered Australia. My Swedish passport was accepted as e-passport and I was welcomed to Australia very quickly and easily. During queuing for the declaration of my medicine, I have been asked of an officer if I had chocolate because I come from Sweden. When I explained, that Switzerland makes the famous chocolate, he asked me one more time, if I have chocolate, but he dit not check it. When it was my turn to declare my medicine, I just answered, that I have it in my backpack and I was shown the way to the exit.

About my time in Australia you can read about Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales. I left Australia from Sydney for Toronto, Canada 16th May 2016.

My experiences have been really mixed. I have had wonderful hosts even interested in the Swedish culture and a host, who neither cared about me nor the Swedish culture as well as all in between. I have got the feeling, that Australians live “laissez-faire” in their private lives. They do not strive spotless homes. It seemed to me, too, that they do not care about integrity. You can read more about it at Volunteering. The landscape has been totally different till, what I have seen on TV as a child, but that depends on, that I neither have been in the real outback nor in the real dessert. I only have seen a very small part of that big country. By the way, Australians like big things like the “Big Guitar”, the “Big Banana”, the “Big Bench”. If you interested in the theme, click on the following link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia%27s_big_things

In addition to that I have rarely seen spiders and no dangerous at all. The Australians keep them away from their homes, often by spraying with poison. Even snakes I have not seen before in the really remote place in NSW, but it was only one and just was wriggling over the road, because the road was still warm, even it was autumn.

The Aboriginal in Australia, who have lived there for 50 000 years, has not the status as the Maori in New Zealand. Instead they have been hurt in different ways (their children was taken from them for educating of the church, thousands of them were murdered) and also because their gens not are very strong, there are not many left of them. You have to look for their art and traces of them, you cannot just stumble over it.

Tasmania is quite similar to the North of New Zealand, even not really so overwhelming, but the Cradle Mountain. South Australia with Adelaide did not give me breathtaking views either, but the cost line at Christie’s beach is somewhat amazing. Most of the area is flat and dry. It had not rained for nearly three years! In Victoria the “Great Dividing Range” starts. One part of it is the mystic “Hanging Rock”, but even here you find flat and dry parts. Here you also find Melbourne, one of the biggest cities of Australia as well as Victoria has big forests and caves. The Australian Capital Territory only includes Canberra, like the name already tells you. Even Canberra is not a really big city it has its history and culture. Last but not least New South Wales is a diverse state with its well-known city Sydney, full of history and culture. Furthermore you find remote places with small towns, more than one with Artesian wells as well as lonely farms, cotton fields and cotton gins. The state is totally crossed by the Great Dividing Range. Anyway there are dry areas. On the other side of the mountains you can find wonderful beaches I have been told, but not been there. Though I will go back to Australia at the end of my trip throughout Asia and start to see the country from the north, from Darwin.