canada

Vancouver – Week 2-3

August 17th, 2010 | Posted in News, Travel, Travel Stories | 3 Comments
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Howdy Folks,

That’s right we’ve been in Vancouver a whole 3 weeks now! Yes, the blog posts of the rest of Chile and Peru are still in writing i’m sure over the next few months we’ll get around to them.

What have we been doing? Exploring and of course, applying for jobs, jobs and more jobs. The job hunting is going ok, last week was particularly busy with interviews and phone interviews. I think in total we had about 8 between us and are now waiting to hear back or get an update. Keep your fingers crossed for us. If anyone has any contacts up here in Canada we’d greatly appreciate if you passed our details on, even if it was just to meet them and take them out for a beer or coffee. :)

Vancouver is a very beautiful city, the tall glass skyscrapers refelect the greens and blues of the forrests, mountains and water. We’ve been checking out the different areas such as coal harbour, yaletown, north vancouver, gastown etc. There always seems to be some festival or something on. For instance, we woke up one Saturday to music and drums getting louder and louder…turns out there was a Phillipeno parade meandering its way down our street.

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To Jess’ great surprise and delight, we found out her favourite band Karnivool were going to be playing at The Venue in Vancouver for $15. Karnivool are a Perth band with a solid following down under but as we found out the rest of the world hasnt found out how great they are. Or they just agree with my summation being that they sound like a cat drowing amongst several garbage trucks. Fortunatley their live show was fantastic for Jesse and the Venue had a bar so i was happy. I even attempted to sing along which was easy when every word is a high pitched meow of varying lengths.

Street concert on the way to watch Karnivool

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The Venue – Vancouver Downtown

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Read more »

Working Holiday to Canada via South America

February 8th, 2010 | Posted in Blog, News, Travel, Travel Tips | No Comments
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So we’re going to Canada to work and holiday! Moving overseas has been a lengthy exercise with plenty, and i mean, plenty of little annoying things to get done depending on what your leaving behind in Australia. This is my experience.

Hutch: “I’ve got a fine idea! Let’s screw it all and go travelling for a while, we could work in Canada”
5 Min’s later after the excited rambling stops.
JB: “Hmm i dunno what about this, what about that”
3 months later…
JB: “You know what i reckon we do it!”
Hutch: “Do what?”
JB: “Go to Canada!”

That’s how it started, then the idea grew:
Hutch: “I reckon we should do as much travel before we get to Canada as possible. You know South America, USA etc. Maybe rent a RV and trek across the USA”
15 Min’s later after the excited rambling stops.
JB: “Hmm i dunno what about this, what about that”
Hutch: “Yes your probably right about the RV thing Ben does snore a lot, but still it makes sense to travel beforehand else we’re just moving house really”
2 months later…
JB: “You know what i reckon we do it!”
Hutch: “Do what?”
JB: “Travel beforehand around South America” Read more »

Canadian Working Holiday Visa

February 8th, 2010 | Posted in Blog, News, Travel, Travel Tips | 3 Comments
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First things first we’re going to need a visa so, OK this is fairly straight forward if your an Australian aged between 18-30 at the time the application is received and without any specific medical conditions then you’re eligible to apply for the Canadian Working Holiday Visa. I won’t get into anymore details about the visa itself because that’s the job of the WHP Canada site but i will mention that currently the working holiday visa is no longer a once in a lifetime opportunity it can now be renewed on a yearly basis.

The process of applying is fairly straight forward: Read more »

USA B1/B2 Visa for Australians

February 8th, 2010 | Posted in Blog, News, Travel, Travel Tips | 2 Comments
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If you’re travelling through or stopping by the USA on your way to Canada or Mexico, as we are, you may need to apply for the USA B1/B2 Visa as the Visa Waiver Program(VWP) counts time spent in Canada and Mexico as time against that Visa. For example if you flew to Los Angeles and spent 3 days there on the VWP, went up to Vancouver and worked there for 6 months then flew back down to San Francisco you would of overstayed your VWP by 3 months(give or take a few days).

For information on the VWP please see: http://canberra.usembassy.gov/consular/visas/niv/vwp.html

For information on the B1/B2 Visa please visit: http://canberra.usembassy.gov/consular/visas/niv/business-pleasure.html

Specifically, we’re concerned with the B2 Visa as the B1 Visa relates to business travellers. So the B2 Visa is appropriate for: Read more »

Canadian Bank Accounts

February 8th, 2010 | Posted in Blog, News, Travel, Travel Tips | 1 Comment
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If you’re like me, you like to get things sorted before you arrive. Therefore being able to setup a bank account in the country your moving to before you arrive is handy. HSBC through their International Banking Centre provides a service where you can setup bank accounts in the country you’re moving too from your current location provided it has a HSBC branch nearby. Luckily i had used this service previously when i moved to the UK and i am unaware of any other banks that can provide this international service. Read more »

North American Travel Insurance

February 8th, 2010 | Posted in Blog, News, Travel, Travel Tips | 1 Comment
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One thing I’ve never used, touch wood, but never leave home without is travel insurance, not because i worked at an insurance company but because if things go bad especially with my health I want to be sure i can get adequate treatment. If you’ve purchased travel insurance before you may of noticed when you select a region, North America and Japan are separated from the rest of the world. Now without confirming with an insurance expert i assume this is because in those countries(USA, Canada and Japan)  you’re required to have private health insurance to get medical assistance or at least have some means of paying for it. I know for certain to obtain the working holiday visa once you arrive in Canada you will need to provide proof that you have insurance. Read more »

Where are we going?

February 8th, 2010 | Posted in Blog, News, Travel Stories | No Comments
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To all our friends, family and stalkers out there this is our travel plan, please note that we do plan to not follow the plan so at any given time we might end up doing something completely different. Essentially money will dictate how far we get in this plan so here we go:

Tip Zoom Out


View South America Trip in a larger map

View South America Trip in a larger map

So that’s our plan, wish us luck!

Hutch

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