My Australian Global Journey So Far

This special edition features one Global Traveller in particular - Andrew! You may well have seen his stunning snaps featured all over our #globalworkandtravel tag on Insta. Now he’s taking us through the first few days on the sunny shores of Australia on his Working Holiday trip with Global Work & Travel.

Adventure One: Surfers Paradise

After I arrived, I went to the orientation held at Global HQ in Surfers Paradise on a Monday. I sat around the table talking with other Global Travellers about what all our plans were for the next few days. We decided first to all walk to the bank together, to get our bank cards, so that we actually had accessible money because having no money in a new country is the time to go crazy. As the new ‘Global family’ decided to go and get lunch while we discussed the idea of going to Currumbin Zoo followed by Springbrook National Park, a protected national park located in the Gold Coast hinterland. Being my idea, I said I would drive.

Adventure Two: Renting a Car

We rented a car from our hostel (Budds) for $30 each, which split between 5 people is a no-brainer, and we spent $4 on petrol each. Entry to the park was free because you receive free tickets from Global as part of the Working Holiday Australia package, and the National Park was also free, so it was a cheap day out. Using a website like ‘vroom vroom’ is also good to find a car rental.

We arranged to meet at 8:30 am sharp on Tuesday morning. Bearing in my mind, this was my first time driving in Australia and driving an automatic it was eventful, to say the least. Every 5 minutes I was flicking the windscreen wipers on and not the indicator and then trying desperately to change gear; too much of the amusement of the others.

Adventure Three: Currumbin Zoo & Springbrook National Park

We navigated through the city with luck and skill, to say the least. Once arriving at Currumbin Zoo, the first place we went was koala handling, being the tourists that we are. It’s a little expensive, but we did a group package which worked out cheaper for us all. When getting ready for the group photo, the photographer said we looked like one weird looking family, and we all looked at each other in agreement and started laughing thus the ‘Global Family’ was born.

After the zoo, we left for Springbrook which is an hour drive from the Gold Coast, stopping off at 'Macca’s' for lunch; the trip to Springbrook is long and windy but a beautiful scenic drive nonetheless.

We got lost several times during the drive (not my fault, honestly!) but when arriving, we were not disappointed. The walk takes about an hour and a half, but we spent a good 3 hours there looking around and exploring when getting to the first waterfall, named Twin Falls we sat for ages contemplating if we were going in or not; then this couple and a tour guide came through and jumped in without even thinking about it. We all looked at each other internally yelling ‘screw it’ and started to strip of like ‘yeah we are doing this in underwear’, and it was the best decision we made during that walk.

Doing it for the ‘gram

We finished the walk early evening with incredible views looking out over the rainforest, listening to the birds and animals while talking about our ideas for the next couple of years surrounding our travels ‘down under’. When arriving back to the car, I made a last minute dash to the loo, in the dark. Bad move. Once I turned on my phone flashlight, I was confronted with some of the biggest spiders I’ve seen to date. I'm not one to get easily scared, but I did hurry out of there! On the drive back, the main topic of discussion was my apparently questionable driving. However, when asking the question 'but did we die?', no one did, which to me isn't questionable at all.

Is this the last of the Global Family? I think not! What will be our next adventure?

You can follow Andrew on Instagram, to keep up with his inspirational journey, OR you can get going on your very own Working Holiday adventure just by clicking that little red button!