Travelbuddies for Australia 2013 wanted!

Hi there,

I just opened a facebook book regarding this but cross-post it here to maybe create moar interest. If you are interested just hook me up on facebook and I'll invite you to teh fb-group! cheers


Sup foos!

European summer comes slowly to an end and as some might know my plan this winter is to escape to Australia and co. from januar 2013 ongoing for 4-5 months. Last year I had a blast in South America but I decided to not go back there until I at least speak semi-fluently spanish and this will not happen in teh next few months. 
So my main issues in searching for a place to go were good weather (so obv i have to go south) and english language. After all I decided to roll with Australia for next year and see how I like it.

If I have to go alone I will do so but if I find somebody who is keen on travelling a little bit with me even better. If you have already plans for january++, cannot move bc no money, gf that stresses, whatever it is just snapleave teh group in order to keep it clean.

Optimal scenario for me would be 2 or 3 people who would be interested to go to OZ in teh aforementioned timeframe. If there is moar interest we can obv. go in different groups but living together only makes sense up to 4 people imo and even that will get pretty messy concerning we are all poker players...


General Plan:
- Sydney for NYE and staying there for 2-3 weeks til mid end january
- flying to Auckland and staying there for 2-3 weeks again til beginning/mid feb
- flying to Gold Coast and staying directly at Surfers Paradise for appr. 2 months - depending how much I like it maybe a little shorter or longer
- on teh way back to Europe spending a month in Bali or something similar (like Thailand, Philipines, Malaysia, watever)

= total time 4-5months

That being said this is my general plan which I will be doing if I'm on my own - i'm pretty much open for every suggestion there is and nothing is set in stone especially when travelling in a group...


Budget:
From what I've seen so far the downside is that OZ and NZL are not very cheap, especially when it comes to short-term renting. I don't really plan to stay in hotels there (bc this gonna be ridic expensive) but even apts tend to be on teh pricier side...
I only looked into Gold Coast accomodation so far but would expect Sydney and Auckland to be similar if not moar expensive.
If you search a nice 1br place for yourself and you want to have it semiballer you have to expect to spent between 2-2.5k$ a month. If you are a group of 3 or 4 I would expect to get this down to 1.5-1.75k$ a month per person.
That being said living in a nice place is pretty important for me bc teh better i live teh better i feel teh better i play teh moar money i make etc. So saving here it's not really an option for me.

I cannot say much regarding other costs like food, party, beach, sightseeing, etc. but assume renting will be teh biggest share. You also have to consider that flying to Australia is not cheap and will cost around 1keuro (atm) from central europe one way.

All in all I expect to spent something around 5k$ a month for everything but you probably can also go a little bit cheaper (i spent alot on food...)


Timemanagement:
I plan not to play to much poker during teh time in Sydney and Auckland and visit teh cities, make some trips, sightseeing, party, etc.
Once I'm in Gold Coast I plan to increase volume again to at least 100 hours a month, go back to a good workout routine, party, beach, etc. - same for Bali.
Since I'm quite flexible with my time I'm always keen to do something different like a couple of days road trip in teh outback etc...



As being stated in teh beginning if you have already plans just quit teh group directly in order to make it easier for me to see who is really interested in Down Under.
For those interested just leave a post here for now or drop a private message - I know it's still along time until january but you cannot plan this things early enough from my experience...