dinner set nz image
BZR
I'm thinking of going to Fiji / AU / NZ early next year... maybe four, five weeks in total. I'll probably spend most of my time in AU / NZ (just stopping by for a few days in Fiji most likely).
I'm wondering, how much is it going to cost me down there? I know the US dollar is fairly close to AU / NZ dollars now, maybe a few percent difference by the time I go down there.
What should I be budgeting (in US dollars) each day? I'm planning on going pretty cheap -- simple food, simple lodgings, probably no car for most of the trip. Not necessarily eating canned food every day, but also not eating and sit down restaurants every day either...
Any tips on cheap food strategies, cheap lodging strategies, transportation tips and tricks, etc. would be much appreciated, as would different takes on AU vs. NZ and the merits of both. Real life experience and stories are welcomed.
Thanks!
Any advice regarding Fiji is welcome also! I might spend a week or more there depending on how things develop in the next six months.
Answer
Where are you going in Aus? Are you travelling everywhere or visiting just Melbourne and Sydney?
I would tell you not to hire a car in Melbourne its cheaper and easier to get around the city using the trams, buses and taxis. Definately avoid well known restaurants, pubs (bar meals), backpacker hostels and fast food are very cheap for food (about $10 -$20 Aud for dinner). In Sydney definately use public transport. A train runs from the airport to the city, Sydney is expensive to eat but it's possible to find little gems. Fuel is outrageously expensive right now ($1.60 a litre, 3.7 litres in a US gallon) so try and stick to public transport, museums or galleries where they ask only for small donations. Tourist exhibits and attractions like the snow fields, restaurants, caberets, theme parks, wine country (Yarra Valley and Margaret river) theatres etc are very expensive.
In Qld avoid Dreamworld, Movieworld, white water world and wet and wild as they are expensive and nothing compared to Disney and Universal.
In Western Aus avoid Margaret river unless you want a weekend to splurge. You may need a rental car in WA as its big and everything is far apart. I reccommend Little Creatures Brewery in Fremantle for a pint of good beer, great food and fun setting. You will need about $25-$50 to eat and drink there.
I haven't seen the rest of Aus so I cant tell you much.
Definately allocate about $50.00 a day if you want to really go cheap or double it if you want to eat in some bars and restaurants and have some wine or beer and not eat Maccas all day. (quater pounder meals about $7 no supersize! We don't have that)
Definately stick to backpacker hostels ($20 for share room normally or $50-$70 for your own room) eat breakfast and dinner at the hostel its cheaper and better yalue than anywhere else. Buy a multirider card for trams, bus and train rides in the cities. You can get 20 or 40 riders for quite cheap and use it once you get on the transport, no change needed.
We are all a friendly bunch down here, so once you get here you will get more help and tips.
Where are you going in Aus? Are you travelling everywhere or visiting just Melbourne and Sydney?
I would tell you not to hire a car in Melbourne its cheaper and easier to get around the city using the trams, buses and taxis. Definately avoid well known restaurants, pubs (bar meals), backpacker hostels and fast food are very cheap for food (about $10 -$20 Aud for dinner). In Sydney definately use public transport. A train runs from the airport to the city, Sydney is expensive to eat but it's possible to find little gems. Fuel is outrageously expensive right now ($1.60 a litre, 3.7 litres in a US gallon) so try and stick to public transport, museums or galleries where they ask only for small donations. Tourist exhibits and attractions like the snow fields, restaurants, caberets, theme parks, wine country (Yarra Valley and Margaret river) theatres etc are very expensive.
In Qld avoid Dreamworld, Movieworld, white water world and wet and wild as they are expensive and nothing compared to Disney and Universal.
In Western Aus avoid Margaret river unless you want a weekend to splurge. You may need a rental car in WA as its big and everything is far apart. I reccommend Little Creatures Brewery in Fremantle for a pint of good beer, great food and fun setting. You will need about $25-$50 to eat and drink there.
I haven't seen the rest of Aus so I cant tell you much.
Definately allocate about $50.00 a day if you want to really go cheap or double it if you want to eat in some bars and restaurants and have some wine or beer and not eat Maccas all day. (quater pounder meals about $7 no supersize! We don't have that)
Definately stick to backpacker hostels ($20 for share room normally or $50-$70 for your own room) eat breakfast and dinner at the hostel its cheaper and better yalue than anywhere else. Buy a multirider card for trams, bus and train rides in the cities. You can get 20 or 40 riders for quite cheap and use it once you get on the transport, no change needed.
We are all a friendly bunch down here, so once you get here you will get more help and tips.
Herefordshire [England]?
J.Welkin
Q1) I'm wondering if my story, which is a historical romance set in the 1800s, would be good to set in Herefordshire. My heroine goes to the estate of a Duke [in Herefordshire?] as a chaperone....
Q2)But when my heroine&Duke&others go to London for balls and parties, they have to travel all that distance to LONDON!!!! so I was wondering is there is a nearby region next to London where there are many wild rocky hills/mountains like Herefordshire.
Q3)By the way, ARE there any rocky hills in Herefordshire??? Or are they all foresty hills, or plain, grassy hills??
Answer
I don't know much about Herefordshire except that it has a lot of beautiful and historic parts. You will have to do a lot of detailed research for your book. Here's something to start with:
http://www.touristinformationcentres.com/county.php?county=69
http://www.visitherefordshire.co.uk/ (virtual tours)
http://www.aph.org.uk/
If your novel is set in the Regency period, for instance, you will have to make sure you are completely au fait with the period. The duke will have at least one country estate, to which he retires when he is not in London during the Season, or at Bath, Brighton etc, although he might well rent a house at the last two places. He will have a townhouse in London, perhaps in Berkeley Square - at least in the Mayfair area of today - where he will live for the London Season, so there won't be any travelling down for fashionable balls, levees, soirees, etc. Young bucks might have lodgings in Jermyn Street, Half Moon Street, etc. There were also houses up for rent if someone couldn't afford to keep one permanently.
"The prime time for social events for high society in London. The Season began after Easter and lasted through June. A variety of entertainments were held during this time, and it was a way for ladies to meet potential mates."
You will also have to know about the levels of society, and what would and would not be acceptable behaviour or interaction within those parameters. "Trade", for instance, was looked down upon by the aristocracy. However, an impoverished daughter of a very minor peer would be quite all right with whom to associate, or the son of a general.
Make sure you also know the manners of the period; you can't model your young, well-bred ladies on today's behaviour - they would never speak to a man about duels, loose women, etc, and they would never set foot in St James's Street where all the gentlemen's clubs were. Some subjects would be taboo even between man and wife, even though both might be having affairs on the quiet - although not in a Regency romance!
Here are some sites for information:
http://www.thenonesuch.com/lexicon.html
http://members.aol.com/LONDON20/mysite_005.htm
http://www.thebeaumonde.com/realm/
http://www.likesbooks.com/regent.html
You will also have to know how long the journey took from the duke's country estate to London: how many stops; did he have his own horses posted along the way?; how many postilions he would have hired; what was the most fashionable carriage he would have used, for family and for himself - the equivalent of perhaps today's BMW or Porsche. No lady would travel alone or with just a man unless they were related. Make sure you know how they lived both in the country and in town; how many servants, personal servants, etc. What was the precedence at dinner, and how were they served -and with what?
Sorry to go on, but having made a study of the 18th and early 19th centuries, I notice anachronisms and anomalies. The people have to ring true to their time, in speech, manner, dress, etc.
But good luck, and I hope the sites will be useful. You can also access the Georgette Heyer site which will give you interesting and lesser-known information. (I wouldn't touch Barbara Cartland with a barge-pole!)
http://www.georgette-heyer.com/links/reginfo.html
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gheyer.htm
Miscellaneous:
http://www.georgianindex.net/horse_and_carriage/coaching.html
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~awoodley/carriage/types.html
http://www.georgianindex.net/horse_and_carriage/carriages.html
http://www.lesleyannemcleod.homestead.com/transportation1.html
http://www.rth.org.uk/regencyhistory/life/
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/regency-dances.htm
http://users.visi.net/~rosemary/regency.html
http://www.gaelenfoley.com/index-06contact.html
http://www.kokoskikreations.com/notoriousangel/regencyfacts.html
http://www.jasa.net.au/london/clubs.htm
http://www.knowledgehouse.info/njfkregency.html
http://www.romantictimes.com/resources_research.php?article=6
http://archive.thenorthernecho.co.uk/2005/10/4/207893.html
http://www.lesleyannemcleod.homestead.com/manners.html
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~awoodley/Regency.html#picture
I don't know much about Herefordshire except that it has a lot of beautiful and historic parts. You will have to do a lot of detailed research for your book. Here's something to start with:
http://www.touristinformationcentres.com/county.php?county=69
http://www.visitherefordshire.co.uk/ (virtual tours)
http://www.aph.org.uk/
If your novel is set in the Regency period, for instance, you will have to make sure you are completely au fait with the period. The duke will have at least one country estate, to which he retires when he is not in London during the Season, or at Bath, Brighton etc, although he might well rent a house at the last two places. He will have a townhouse in London, perhaps in Berkeley Square - at least in the Mayfair area of today - where he will live for the London Season, so there won't be any travelling down for fashionable balls, levees, soirees, etc. Young bucks might have lodgings in Jermyn Street, Half Moon Street, etc. There were also houses up for rent if someone couldn't afford to keep one permanently.
"The prime time for social events for high society in London. The Season began after Easter and lasted through June. A variety of entertainments were held during this time, and it was a way for ladies to meet potential mates."
You will also have to know about the levels of society, and what would and would not be acceptable behaviour or interaction within those parameters. "Trade", for instance, was looked down upon by the aristocracy. However, an impoverished daughter of a very minor peer would be quite all right with whom to associate, or the son of a general.
Make sure you also know the manners of the period; you can't model your young, well-bred ladies on today's behaviour - they would never speak to a man about duels, loose women, etc, and they would never set foot in St James's Street where all the gentlemen's clubs were. Some subjects would be taboo even between man and wife, even though both might be having affairs on the quiet - although not in a Regency romance!
Here are some sites for information:
http://www.thenonesuch.com/lexicon.html
http://members.aol.com/LONDON20/mysite_005.htm
http://www.thebeaumonde.com/realm/
http://www.likesbooks.com/regent.html
You will also have to know how long the journey took from the duke's country estate to London: how many stops; did he have his own horses posted along the way?; how many postilions he would have hired; what was the most fashionable carriage he would have used, for family and for himself - the equivalent of perhaps today's BMW or Porsche. No lady would travel alone or with just a man unless they were related. Make sure you know how they lived both in the country and in town; how many servants, personal servants, etc. What was the precedence at dinner, and how were they served -and with what?
Sorry to go on, but having made a study of the 18th and early 19th centuries, I notice anachronisms and anomalies. The people have to ring true to their time, in speech, manner, dress, etc.
But good luck, and I hope the sites will be useful. You can also access the Georgette Heyer site which will give you interesting and lesser-known information. (I wouldn't touch Barbara Cartland with a barge-pole!)
http://www.georgette-heyer.com/links/reginfo.html
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gheyer.htm
Miscellaneous:
http://www.georgianindex.net/horse_and_carriage/coaching.html
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~awoodley/carriage/types.html
http://www.georgianindex.net/horse_and_carriage/carriages.html
http://www.lesleyannemcleod.homestead.com/transportation1.html
http://www.rth.org.uk/regencyhistory/life/
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/regency-dances.htm
http://users.visi.net/~rosemary/regency.html
http://www.gaelenfoley.com/index-06contact.html
http://www.kokoskikreations.com/notoriousangel/regencyfacts.html
http://www.jasa.net.au/london/clubs.htm
http://www.knowledgehouse.info/njfkregency.html
http://www.romantictimes.com/resources_research.php?article=6
http://archive.thenorthernecho.co.uk/2005/10/4/207893.html
http://www.lesleyannemcleod.homestead.com/manners.html
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~awoodley/Regency.html#picture
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