Eek.

We have begun some serious planning. We have a list of places we want to go, we have begun compiling a list of hostels, and are considering beginning in Perth again now. We had settled on Sydney, and now we've yoyoed back to the original idea.

The TV kept telling us to go to Perth. That must be a sign. It's four hours nearer for one thing (anything to take time off that horrendously long flight is welcome) and Freemantle, we have discovered, is only twenty minutes from Perth City centre. On a map it is ridiculously close. They must have good public transport too, because John and Christine (who housesat for us) have had students to stay with them before and talked about them going out at night and stuff. Also, Freemantle looks pretty nice.

My biggest concern is having places to stay. It's hardly practical using hostels, and difficult to book when we don't really have a definite idea of where we'll be when.

Mum's cousin lives somewhere (fingers crossed for Melbourne or Sydney, although Perth would be alright or I suppose Canberra wouldn't be so bad) so kind of hoping maybe they will have a spare room where we can stay for a week or two. I think they are obligated to offer, as they are family.

The plan will probably be to spend October and November, possibly December, in Perth, and then fly across to Sydney and before the autumn weather sets in go up to Cairns or something in Queensland (via Brisbane). Then hopefully towards the end we will be able to get in a visit to Alice Springs and back to Perth for the tail end. It's looking like we're most likely going to have to rely on doing some fruit picking, although I'd rather not if I could help it. I'm not that keen on the thought of being in a really rural area. I don't think I'm fit enough. If we're lucky we'll be able to find some bar work or something.

Any tips on finding work, or stories about how other people did their working holiday, would be so helpful. We really haven't a clue what we're doing, and I'm worried we'll get there still without a clue what we're doing.