MrsE

Hi All

As you may have seen from previous posts we are doing a reccie in March... 2weeks in Perth, 5 days in in Sydney and then 2 weeks Gold Coast.

Question is....... of those of you that have been on their reccie did you know there and then whether or not Oz was for you??? Not too sure what to expect when we get out there? Has anyone got out there and thought - ohmygod - what was I thinking of? Or was it Wow - I really do want to live here! Or perhaps you thought one thing and your partner thought something else

Thanks for your responses

xLaLax

Hi MrsE

We went out in April, not for a reccie but for a holiday to visit all my relatives (aunts and uncles) on my Dads side and fell completely in love with the country

We spent time in Sydney, Coffs Harbour NSW, Tweed Heads NSW and Brisbane......and seeing as my Sister is already there now Brisbane is where we are planning on being based. For me it was either a love it or hate it experience as it was for my OH who spent time on a WHV at the begining of 2008.

My advice would be to go with the flow and try not to compare it too much with home as you are after all in a completely different country, embrace all the funny differences such as only being allowed to park in the direction your travelling, e.g you can't spot a space on the opposite side and park in it facing the opposite direction like you can do at home. If I remember rightly you are not allowed to do U turns in NSW but you can in Queensland.....little things like that made me laugh.

I hope it goes well for you and you both come to the same conclusion as each other!!!!

L
xx

myrtle1

Hello again you

So ... What was all that about you not letting the idea run away with you

Our reccie was the result of hubby's constant nagging about Brisbane. I eventually gave in on the understanding that we took it as a hol and made him promise not discuss a possible move in any way until we got back. Being a typical woman, I changed my thoughts completely after being there a while and bit by bit, talked more and more about the possibility of a permanent move. Hope you all doing well x

asprilla

There are two schools of thought on "reccies".

The first is that they are useful and can help you decide on whether or not a move to Australia is a good idea.

The second is that they are pretty useless because you are in holiday mode, you are not experiencing the nitty gritty of living and working on foreign soil, or the multitude of issues that only arise over time.

I tend to think that they are a good idea. You wouldn't blindly buy a house in a random town in the UK, so why would you blindly move to another country?

Having said that, there are lots of people who move over here without visiting first, and they still make a success of it.

I think that a person who does a "reccie" ends up with a very slightly better idea about life in Australia than a person who doesn't. Also "reccie" people will tend to be people that are better at planning...... Now I've got no evidence to back this up whatsoever, but I reckon that, on average, the "reccie" people will make a slightly better informed decision... as a result I would guess that a slightly lower percentage will end up returning to the UK.

Going back to your original question, I think that you already have a fair idea of whether or not you will make the move to Oz. The reccie will further influence this view, and as you say, you might step off the plane and 2 days later think to yourself "This is for me" or "I can't wait to go home" !!!

best of luck !

paddyo

You may be right about that. We did not do a reccie and I know for my wife it was a complete unknown coming here for our 3 year Temp Visa.
I have been before 6 years ago so knew roughly what to expect but then I was'nt looking for a place to live. Looking for a place to live on a reccie will be difficult as you really need to be able to get a good grasp of the areas make up and demographics and then have a look around it. Some places, like Sydney, are huge and its a nigh impossible task.
One bit of advice.....the language is the same, the shops are the same (ish!!) and the places the OP is going to will have an air of familiarity to them. But, it is a compeltly different world here and it will take a while to get your head around some of the things, both good and bad, that are different to the UK.

Buzzy--Bee

Brisbane Reccie -

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=412993

Melbourne Reccie -

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=413388

Hope that helps

Buzzy

MrsE

That was a fantastic read! Loved it - thank you!

asprilla

Try and post your own reports too if you get a chance ! we all enjoy reading this kind of thing.

cheers !

kporte

Try as much as you possibly can, not to treat it as a holiday. Do some real work, skip the theme parks and drive around a lot to look at prospective areas.

Jan4kids

I was even more confused, maybe even a little worried as nowhere felt anything near 'right'. I didn't realise just how many places there would be
Jan

MrsE

Thanks - I will definitely be documenting our visiting and posting on here!

5u5an

Hi MrsE,

We had a great honeymoon in Sydney, Uluru and GBReef in 2007 and loved it. It was a bit of a reccie trip as we had already discussed it and planned out our migration stratergy. I would actually contradict kporte and tell you to do some touristy things and have fun there. We went for another trip to Melbourne just before Christmas and spent so much time looking at accomodation, work etc that we had a pretty miserable time. In fact, when we go back we'll be going to Sydney now. Like paddyo said, looking around all the suburbs was impossible and I'm not sure that the ones we picked were representative (certainly weren't impressive) so do some research about areas BEFORE you go and go out on the train lines to the outer suburbs too. If you want to nose around some houses then http://www.realestate.com.au/ have lists of houses open for 15 mins visits. Maybe go to Wollworths and Coles and have a look at the prices - we were shocked!

asprilla

No need to fly across the world to find out the cost of a lettuce in woolworths. Just post on here and we'll tell you.

paddyo

Ex Caerphilly here as well!!!

RobertC

We came out without a reccie visit and we are careful planners (generally), I think that if your reasons for moving are strong enough and you've done at lease a little research then a reccie visit isn't going to make you change your mind. It might help you to decide which city (or state) to go for but in our case my sisute lived in Brisbane so that'e where we came to.

To be honest I don't think there's much difference between the cities, the climates and weather patterns are quite different in them but they are a very log way apart. The culture, opportunities and housing are pretty much the same though. If you love having beaches very close then Darwin and Brisbane aren't the best choices, for work opportunities the big three are Sydney, Melbourne then Brisbane. You can really make a better choice on paper than from a reccie visit and its much cheaper too.

Of course, you could just watch every episode of 'Wanted Down Under' and base your choice on that