Prepping for Australia

[jimhines]

In one month, my daughter and I are flying to Melbourne, Australia, where I’m joining Ambelin Kwaymullina, Sharon Mosely, and Danny Oz as guests of honor at Continuum.

To say I’m excited would be an understatement. The Continuum folks I’ve talked to so far have been great, the convention looks like a lot of fun, and on top of that, it’s my first time to Australia. I’ve been looking forward to this trip all year, and will be taking a little extra time after the convention to look around a bit.

Now, I consider myself a well-educated person, but I have to admit that my knowledge of Australia is a little limited. Here’s what I do know:

• Everything is poisonous.
• Drop bears.

So I throw myself on the mercy of the internet. Help me, hive mind.

• What must I make sure to bring along?
• What kind of electrical conversion doohickey do I need to make sure Australia’s power grid (which I’m assuming is poisonous) doesn’t kill my stuff?
• What’s the best way to test for Iocaine Powder?
• Do I have to check my shoes for koalas every morning?
• What if I can’t find the “Australia” setting on my camera?
• How nasty are the foreign transaction fees on the credit card likely to be?
• Any tips for jet lag? (Right now, my plan is to try to stay up until bedtime on the first day to see if I can force my body into the new schedule. Either that, or just spend the whole time hallucinating.)
• Will customs let me bring Hugh Jackman home as a gift for my wife?
• Do wombats really poop in cubes? (Follow-up: Is cube-shaped poop poisonous?)

And what else should I know that I’m forgetting to ask about?

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Comments

[wyldbutterflies]

Can't help you with Australia, but having been to Japan, I can tell that when exchanging foreign money in Michigan, they do not accept coinage - which means they won't take your foreign coins and trade them for US coins - they will only change paper money into paper money. Which is just ridiculous really since it would be easy enough for them to do.

So, for the love of everything sane - SPEND YOUR FOREIGN COINS. Or, just plan to keep them as souvenirs since even some banks won't exchange any more.

The fees on credit cards can get pretty bad. I say talk to your issuer for each card and weigh them against each other before deciding on which one to use. If you are with a credit union, sometimes their debit/credit cards can be set up so that you don't have extra charges, which is what mine did).

[jimhines]

Thank you! Talking to the credit card company beforehand is a good idea...

[deird1]

Best jetlag tip I've got:
Sleep for an hour as soon as you land, then stay up until bedtime.


On Australia:
My friend moved to Melbourne last year, and I wrote her three blog posts on what she should expect. You should try reading them.

Do I have to check my shoes for koalas every morning?
Don't put your hand inside something you can't see, and don't pat the wildlife unless you have a wildlife expert standing there reassuring you that it's okay. Other than that, you should be fine.

[jimhines]

Thank you, I'll check those out!

[synecdochic]

Bring a giant fucking bottle of sunscreen. Apply it at least twice a day. Even if "all you're doing" is hanging out in the con hotel. The sun is incredibly powerful, and you will get burned just walking from the hotel to the nearest tram stop.

While you're in Melbourne, if you have time, go out to St Kilda's pier to see the fairy penguins. (There are also very nice bakeries nearby.)

Be sure to have kangaroo for dinner at least once while you're there. It's really, really good.

[ironjeff]

HATS are also your friends down there! Not ball caps, you need something with a real brim!

[jimhines]

Especially given my ... lack of scalp protection :-)

[zeborah]

The voltage in Australia is twice that in the US; you'll require both a converter for the voltage and a plug adapter for the shape.

Hotels in Australia/New Zealand aren't as free with their internet as you might expect. (The hotel I stayed at in Melbourne provided one 30-minute chunk per 24 hours, and I counted myself lucky.) You can get a SIM card / sign up for a data plan at the airport. (SIM cards are cheaper at 7/11s in town, I'm just not sure if they handle the signing-up-for-a-data-plan part. But you can generally stand on any given spot in town and see at least two 7/11s.)

I enjoyed the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre in the Melbourne Museum. I was at conferences most of the hours the Koorie Heritage Trust was open so only had time to buy up a small chunk of the bookstore, not to look around which seemed like it would have been worthwhile.

Can you sleep on planes? Because that makes it a lot easier to deal with jetlag: the basic method is to start acclimatising to the new timezone as soon as possible from the start of your journey (ie from when you set out for the airport). If you can't, get extra sleep beforehand. Staying up to bedtime on the first day in Oz should definitely be the goal. In any case my personal rules for long flights are:

• whenever a flight attendant passes with water/juice/fizzy drink, get a cup of it. Or two.


• take the aisle seat. That way a) I don't have to ask someone to let me out to the toilet; b) I could even get up and walk up and down the aisle just for fun; c) anytime someone asks me to let them out to the toilet I'm getting the extra exercise


• if I really want the view (NB generally when I do get a window seat I get a really good view of the wing, so these days I just aim for the aisle) or am otherwise stuck in my seat, twirl my ankles around. I have sucky ankles in general so have an extra need for this, but circulation is really good on long flights.

Do not try to take fruit of any description into Australia.

Tipping is not customary. The proper way to reward good service is by being a good customer.

Don't rely on assuming that Australia is hot, or that winter's cold, or any other assumptions or impressions people tell you about the weather. Use Google to find out what typical weather averages and ranges are for the time you'll be there in -- both range of possibilities and probable range in a given day. Then pack for both a little warmer and a little cooler than that. (I have memories of a New York friend coming to visit me in New Zealand in late summer/autumn, and absolutely freezing. I'd warned her that while it could get hot it could also get cold, but she apparently thought I meant there might be a slight summer breeze. I didn't. Climates do different things in different geographies.)

If you want to try Vegemite, don't for the love of all you hold dear spread it on your toast like peanut butter. (I know someone who did this. They regretted it.) You should scrape it onto the toast, and then scrape it all off again. Take a bite, see what you think, and scrape a little back on to taste. Vegemite is essentially spreadable salt; treat it with respect.

[octavia_b]

It's coming up for winter in Melbourne and while our idea of cold and yours are probably very different, it's definitely not t-shirts and shorts weather. The weather is different up in Queensland of course if you go there - I'm pretty sure it's still summer up there!

We don't tip here. MAYBE 10% at a restaurant at dinner (not breakfast or lunch) if the service is particularly good, but that's it.

And be prepared for everything to cost more than you expect. It's the one comment I hear over and over again from overseas visitors - "I can't believe how expensive everything is here!" It's the trade-off we get for having reasonably decent wages I guess.

[sgac]

You're going to Melbourne in winter. It will be cold. You don't need to worry about heat or sun unless you're also spending time further north. You need a light coat and there may be rain. Morning and evening, you might be grateful for warm scarf and gloves. Brush up on the metric system for distance and temperature.

Money: Australian banknotes are color-coded for your convenience. $5 is purple. $10 is blue. $20 is orange. $50 is yellowish. $100, which you don't see very often, is green. The coins most likely to trip you up are $1 and $2, because the $2 is actually smaller in dimensions than $1.

I don't know the details of Melbourne public transport, but it's pretty good. When crossing the road, remember we drive on the left. In a taxi, you sit in the front seat next to the driver as a gesture of egalitarianism.

Wildlife: it's winter, so the snakes are in hibernation. The spiders are honestly not a big deal. You're far more likely to get startled by a huntsman spider (enormous, common, completely harmless) than encounter anything dangerous.

Tipping: Many cafes will have a jar near the cash register for tips, but it's completely optional. Our service staff earn a living wage.

Don't buy books in Australia, they're expensive.

Australia has the worst telecommunications in the first world, so don't be surprised if wi-fi is dodgy.