Even though I'll likely never have the resources or opportunity to do so, I'm very interested in the idea of moving to either New Zealand or Australia. Could you possibly be persuaded to make a case for me choosing to move to Australia? I'm already aware of The Chasers. Consider that worth a few points in the "pros" column.
Australia's a great place to live ! I've got to travel around a bit when on vacation from uni, so I'll tell you about what I've seen.
Sydney is a fantastic city to visit. Taking a boat out on the harbour, via underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge and past the Opera House, gets you the most superb view. It's postcard quality. Darling Harbour is a hub for tourist attractions. You can access the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, the city centre, the Aquarium, and so forth, from there. As for living in Sydney though, I'm not sure if it's great. It's quite expensive, traffic jams there have been getting worse, and outer suburbia is spreading further out. Then again, by living in Sydney, you have access to jobs, major companies, sporting events and international entertainment; so it's a bit of a trade-off I guess.
Melbourne is probably much more of a "liveable" city. The public (tram) transport is great, and the city centre itself (minus the awesome "tourist attractions" of Sydney) is more picturesque. A little bit cheaper, but not by too much. Melbourne has access to international sporting events (eg: tennis open) and entertainment as well. If you're in Melbourne, take a drive along Great Ocean Road. There you'll see some really beautiful scenery (The Twelve Apostles) and some gorgeous little seaside towns (eg: Apollo Bay). There is some fantastic rainforest along the way as well.
Brisbane is just a city to me. It attracts international entertainment acts; but there's nothing in particular that stands out about Brisbane that I can tell you about. However, Brisbane is very close to some of Australia's great beaches. The Gold Coast is about half an hour south; and the Sunshine Coast is about one or two hours drive north. (Steve Irwin's "Australia Zoo" is on the Sunshine Coast.) There are plenty of tourist attractions on the Gold Coast, which wouldn't compare to Disneyland, but are fun in their own right.
Then there's the Australian countryside. There's plenty of little towns with about 200 - 200000 or so people in each of them, scattered around, between the cities; and there's massive amounts of open bush with eucalypts, kangaroos, wombats, emus and koalas as well. (Australian cities are quite spread out.) Australia is pretty dry and flat; but you find pockets of very green and lush and rainforested areas as well. We have poisonous snakes and spiders, but the snakes are usually scared of you. North Australia is very tropical and beautiful; the Great Barrier Reef is there.
A final couple of pointers: Australia can get very hot . If you're just on a visit, it's probably best to come around September or so. Then you can enjoy the beaches without frying to a crisp. Also, if you're a skiier, the resorts are still open in September. Bushfire season is not a great time to go driving around in the bush/forests (especially if you're in southern Australia). Another thing is that Australia is quite isolated (travel distance wise) from the rest of the world. The people are generally friendly, rather relaxed, kind of naive (I mean that in a good way), and aren't scared to have a laugh at something.
New Zealand Even though the two countries and the people are very close, the landscape of NZ is very different to that of Australia. Australia is flat and dry; NZ is mountainous, volcanic, green and lush. NZ also has snow covered mountain peaks in the winter/spring months that can be seen from all around (especially in the south island); Australia doesn't. NZ is full of great places to do adventure sports, such as bungy jumping, white water rafting, ski diving and zorbing (where you put yourself in a giant plastic ball and roll yourself down a hill). NZ also has a lot of sheep .
! I've got to travel around a bit when on vacation from uni, so I'll tell you about what I've seen.
. If you're just on a visit, it's probably best to come around September or so. Then you can enjoy the beaches without frying to a crisp. Also, if you're a skiier, the resorts are still open in September. Bushfire season is not a great time to go driving around in the bush/forests (especially if you're in southern Australia). Another thing is that Australia is quite isolated (travel distance wise) from the rest of the world. The people are generally friendly, rather relaxed, kind of naive (I mean that in a good way), and aren't scared to have a laugh at something.
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