Originally Posted by
akp713b
Nobody has mentioned the thing that annoyed me by far the most about Oz, the flies!!! Maybe this is specific to a time of year or a region, but from what I was told they are a problem in many areas of Oz. I was travelling through Victoria in January and they were truly terrible. You'd see the backs of people's shirts covered in twenty or more flies. As I tried to play some mini-golf they went up my nose, in my ears and eyes and I was really worried I'd swallow one. I was never bitten by any but apparently some can bite.
As far as climate goes, I have never in my life experience heat like I did in Melbourne. It was 43C (111F) when I was there but the real problem was it stayed in the high 30s overnight. Yet much of the year Melbourne is cooler than Auckland and apparently quite cloudy and rainy. I've seen images of Melbourne covered in snow. There has only been a single recorded occurence of snow in Auckland in recorded history and that was in 1939.
The spiders and snakes wouldn't worry me too much, we had those in the US too. But the intense heat, the serious bush-fires (they had those while I was in Melbourne too) and the awful drought that leaves the countryside brown and dead all keep me from wanting to move there.
I will admit I'd take the Aussie climate over South Island or Wellington any day, but I think upper North Island has the perfect summer climate and very mild winters as well. Sydney is only slightly warmer than Auckland most of the year, only soaring hotter in mid-summer.
Wages are 35-40% higher in Oz but taxes are also higher and cost of living definitely higher as well.
Yes the flies are worst between November-March.