Destination: Australia

So… we’re moving to Australia

We just got our plane tickets, and our visas came last week!

We have a timeshare for the first 2 weeks of October, that we are going to fly down and find a place to rent

We’ve been looking at home rentals in Sydney or Adelaide (Annie is leaning toward Adelaide, and I’m leaning towards Sydney….so we’ll probably compromise and find a place in Adelaide)

So why Australia?

Well….why not?

My wife and close friends know me for a phrase I say on a regular basis – “Let’s go to the beach!”

And for the past 6 months or so we have been talking about moving to the beach – we looked at the San Diego area first, but then decided to be a little more adventurous and try out a new country

Our kids are ages 1, 3, and 5 – so they are still pretty flexible and easy with travel – and they’re getting pretty excited about seeing some koalas and kangaroos.

We are going to Sydney first, but we want to explore some of the major cities in Australia – Brisbane, Melbourne, and Adelaide — and we also have planned to visit several other countries — New Zealand, Fiji, Philippines and Indonesia

As we decided to make this jump – we’ve had to figure a lot of things out

Passports and Visas – We had already purchased passports for our kids earlier this year, because we were anticipating traveling internationally. We looked and decided to do a 12 month tourist visa with Australia. Since my US-based businesses will continue to operate, I can work online as needed in Australia, and don’t need a working visa in Australia since I won’t be earning money in Australia – about $500 for our 5 visas (e676 tourist visa)

Housing – We’ve been able to rent out our house here in the US, and we’ve been searching for furnished housing rentals in Australia for $300-$1000 per week. We’d like to stay in the $500/week range so that we can spend our money more on trips to other cities/countries, adventures and really exploring

Cell Phones – We’re going to be porting our AT&T cell phones over to google voice numbers, Cancel our current AT&T cell phone contracts ($300 termination fee), getting a skype international calling plan, and we’ll probably get pay-as-you-go mobile phone plans when we get to Australia (friends have recommended Telstra, and we’re also looking at Vodafone)

Cars – we sold one of our cars, and are letting family use our Suburban while we are gone. We’re planning on renting/leasing a car when we get there – we’re not sure exactly what this looks like, but we’ll work on figuring it out during the first 2 weeks when we are in Sydney. We understand we can drive just fine with our Drivers License (although we need to renew my wife’s driver’s license this week, as it is set to expire in the next few months)

Our Stuff – we bought a trailer and packed everything we could into the trailer, and then sold all the rest of our stuff that didn’t fit. I never knew that selling our stuff would feel so good – talk about liberating! Makes you realize that you really don’t need all that “stuff.” We’re going to take whatever we can fit in our luggage on the airline ride.

Flights – we’ve been looking for flights for a few months – found a good deal with Air New Zealand, and we upgraded for the “sky couch” – which gives us an extra seat and extra room for the kids. We fly through Auckland, and then Auckland to Sydney – leaving at about 9:30 pm PST, and arriving 2 days later in Sydney round 10:30 am. Total plane ticket cost for 5 people, 2 adults and 3 kids- $4365. Plus I had a ton of credit card points, so I got $1850 off the ticket – so it ended up being about $2515 for 5 plane tickets one way to Sydney – pretty good deal if you ask me.

Medical /Dental – since we have private health insurance, we called our health insurance company and they offer in-network benefits for us in Australia. We can get prescriptions ahead of time before we leave the country, and all of us are going to take a quick visit to the dentist before we leave.

We’re still going to figure out a lot of things when we get there – and we’re excited to go on this adventure together.

If you’re interested in traveling (like I am) and want to find ways to get travel deals – a cool guy to know is Chris Guillebeau - I really enjoy his blog and books, and have been a member of his Travel Hacking Cartel for about a year now. I’ve been able to rack up a ton of mileage points and travel tips from him – including 2 free roundtrip tickets to London, and lots of skymiles

I definitely recommend checking out the Travel Hacking Cartel