TravelBio

On Tuesday we were scheduled to fly from Sydney to Cairns, a small city in northern Queensland.  Queensland is a massive state bordering New South Wales to the north and extending up Cape York nearly to Papua New Guinea.  Brisbane, the state's largest city, and Gold Coast, a strip of hotels and sand not unlike Fort Lauderdale, are both in the far south of Queensland.  Over 1,000 miles north lies Cairns, a town of people.  Most visitors arrange tours to the Great Barrier reef in Cairns.  Other attractions include jungle trekking and adventure tours such as white water rafting, zip-lining, and skydiving. Queensland stretches over 1,000 miles from Brisbane up to Cape York. South of Queensland lies New South Wales, home to Sydney. With only 142,000 residents Cairns still ranks as Australia's 14th most populous 'city' (see  wiki ) The flight to Cairns cost me 10,000 Avios airline miles plus $26 in fees.  Not bad!  We left Sydney at 1:30 pm and arrived at 3

With nearly a month on the farm behind me (wow hard to believe it was almost four weeks) I headed back to Sydney.  I took the bus from Leeton to Wagga Wagga, and then to Sydney via train.  Sam and Mike had arrived in Australia on Thursday and were staying at the Radisson Blu in the CBD (Central Business District).  I wasn't sure where I would stay - maybe a hostel - but luckily they had plenty of room for me to crash at the hotel.  After a night in the Radisson Blu we moved to the Park Hyatt for two nights; by the way, if you actually paid for a room there it would cost you upwards of $900! So how did Sam and Mike manage to book the rooms?  Well just as you can open up credit cards to earn airline miles, you can do the same with hotels.  Cards like the Starwood Preferred Guest and Club Carlson give you bonus points redeemable for free nights at ritzy hotels worldwide - not bad for backpackers!  We wouldn't be able to stay at top end hotels during the whole vacation, but w

On Sunday I had a day off, so naturally Saturday night was another day of drinking at the Fruitshack.  By Monday the grapes were ready and we were back in the fields.  These grapes were for white wine (as opposed to last week's red grapes), and were considerably larger than the red.  Downside is they paid less - only 75 cents a bucket!  A lot also depends on the particular vine you get; some have big bunches of grapes and your buckets fill up quickly, while other vines are less plentiful.  The vine I was on in the morning was the former - nice, big bunches - but in the afternoon they weren't as good.  Overall I still did above average compared to the other pickers and finished with 94 buckets, which adds up to around 70 dollars. All the grape pickers ready to go (I'm top right in the red) Picking speed depends on the vines; if you get nice, big bunches the buckets fill up fast; with small bunches or little grapes, it can take twice as long (or even longer).

Update from the Fruitshack: grape picking commenced on Monday (the 3rd of March).  They were finally good to go and all of us (Michael included) were ready to get started.  I had been picking for all of 30 minutes on Monday morning before Harry, another backpacker, relayed a message from Michael: I was needed immediately for work at the winery! Robert, the manager at Toorak Wines, had previously contacted Michael to say he needed a temporary employee for the harvesting season.  The job didn't qualify for a second year visa so Michael asked me if I was interested (most backpackers, excluding the Americans, can qualify for a second year visa if they do 88 days of farm work).  When I visited the winery it turned out Robert had already found a local for the job.  I was quite disappointed at the news; the winery paid hourly, and far better than picking fruit. Long story short, Michael chose me for the last minute gig because I was the only one who knew how to get to Toorak Wines.  T

The trip to Leeton took a total of 8 hours, first to a town called Wagga Wagga by train (there are plenty of funny names in Australia), and then on a bus from Wagga to Leeton.  I didn't realize it at the time but there were four other backpackers headed to the Fruit Shack on the train/bus; Henrick from Germany, Saffron from England, and Camille and Inis from France.  Michael picked us up in his old camper van, which was painted 'Fruit Shack' on the side.  He also had three other backpackers who he had picked up from work.  Together we drove to the supermarket (Woolworth's) and Michael informed us that we were going grocery shopping for the week. The Woolworths in Leeton is where all the Fruitshackers do their shopping.  It's about a 25 minute walk from the farm, or you can go with Michael when he makes the weekly taxi trip in his van. The Fruitshack van It was quite hard to figure out how much I might need for an entire week, especially since I

After two interviews for door to door sales jobs and an unsuccessful door to door restaurant job search of my own I decided to try my luck on a farm.  The Fruit Shack is a working hostel located in Leeton, a small town of some 6,000 in New South Wales.  Michael, both the owner of the hostel and a farmer, helps backpackers find work.  Michael grows oranges and grapes and was bringing on lots of workers for the upcoming grape harvest.  After exchanging a few phone calls I booked my ticket for Monday from Sydney to Leeton. Leeton is a town of 6,700 people in southern New South Wales, between Griffith and Wagga Wagga, 579 kms (360 miles) from Sydney The weekend before I left Sydney I went out on the town for the first time.  Even though I'd been in Sydney for just over a week already I was more concerned with finding work than finding the best nightlife.  With a simple beer running near $10 and coctails even more at happening spots, going out can really brea