12 months, what could you do in 12 months when you are on
your own, with no one to answer to and no one to gain permission first to do
something? Those people are literally on
the other side of the world. Here you
are in a foreign country that has a buoyant economy and everyone speaks your
language (give it with a slightly odd accent).
I am in this position and I could do, see and go pretty much anywhere I
wanted.
However looking back at my time here in Australia, I really
haven’t done that much. Sure I have done
the snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef with Olivia, the swimming in ancient
volcanic lakes in the Atherton Tablelands and the hiking across the Blue
Mountains whilst drinking vodka. But I
fear most of the past 8 months was spent in bars drinking overpriced Australian
cider.
I didn’t climb aboard a plane and get flown to the other
side of the world to get drunk? I guess I
am having what I have dubbed as a “mid Australian life crisis”.
I simply needed more time here in this great and vast
country. I needed to get a second
working holiday visa and there were only two ways of getting one.
The first way is to do 3 months worth of farm related work
in designated rural areas of Australia.
Fruit picking is the most popular farm related work such as picking
cherries or apples. However the only
time I had done rural work before was when I used to mow the garden and the
only experience I had of handling apples was when I was handling my cider.
The second way was to simply pay a farmer to lie to the
immigration department and claim that you have done your 3 months at their
farm. Finding a farmer to do this was
not difficult, there was always someone you knew who knew someone they knew who
knew a farmer who would do it.
Of course this shady method of getting a second working
holiday visa carried inherent risks. I
have heard that the immigration department only investigate 1 in 7 visa
applications however the ones they do check are checked very thoroughly. If you withdraw cash from an ATM in the city
when you should have been picking apples they will know.
Being the honest person I am I decided to take the first
option and began looking into farm work.
My mission to get a second working holiday visa would result in me
leaving Sydney and eventually I will end up in Tasmania. Here I will do many cool things including
working on a farm, becoming a night manager of a hostel, try surfing for the
first time, buy a car, live in a motor home like a gypsy and encounter a ghost
with a friend (plus many more things).
Looking back, my 8 months in Sydney I consider to be more of
a gap year. I had just finished 5 long
years of university and I needed a break.
But now that was all over, looking forward I had no idea what was going
to happen or where I will end up. I was
looking into the unknown. But it was
okay. Remember, I had no one to answer
to and no one to gain permission first to do something. I am in this position and I could do, see and
go pretty much anywhere I wanted.
