Experiences with wingin' it style travel

Hi, im planning to leave for Australia in feb 2012 and i've gone off the idea of an RTW ticket. Once im in aus i plan to spend around 6 months there staying with relatives for a while and working to increase my funds, after that its completely wingin it then.

I'd just like to find out if anyone has had any experiences doing it this way and how tough it was?

Cheers

Won't have any logistical problems; Australia is very easy to get around, and there is a lot to see. Take the Greyhound/Premier buses, and fly Tiger Airways. That's the cheapest bet. 6 months may be a bit much to travel Aus though (unless you are looking for a more permanent experience), and I would strongly urge you to spend 6+ of those weeks in New Zealand. As for money, it's definitely not the cheapest continent there is, but it's very doable.

Hi there!
Sorry I meant that I was just spending the 6 months in aus to work and stay with relatives, after those 6 months is when i actually plan to start travelling from there, country to country etc... New zealand will be the first stop most likely as i can work a bit there aswell.
Thanks for the reply!

Make sure you have appropriate visas for Aus/NZ. They're easy countries to get visas for, but they take a dim view to skipping that step.

My experience. I haven't really done the work abroad thing. I went to Ireland with a work visa once and decided that, well, I was on holidays and didn't want to work. I did look a bit, even got a job offer (after my money had run out, I got called with an offer while on the bus to the airport ), but at the end of the day I really just wanted some down time in a different place.

Winging it for travel, however, is how I like to go. I do have a route in my head; at least a series of countries. But schedule is just a rough outline to allow me to estimate an appropriate budget. Not having a schedule is lovely. It's nice to just be able to settle in somewhere that you like and stay for a week. I think my biggest regret is not slowing down enough. I tended to fall into a routine of 3-4 days and move on. Which is both exciting and tiring. More whole weeks and more in one place would be good. If I go again, I think I will make it a point to budget for one month out of every three to involve a stop of 3-4 weeks somewhere. Doesn't have to be pre-arranged...just decide I like a place and want to stay for a while.

Now, my long trip was not a RTW. It was planned as a 6 month overland journey in just one corner of the globe (Cairo to Budapest), and ended up lasting only 5 months. There's two big differences between long overland journeys and RTW trips: flights and culture shock. With a RTW you have a number of complications in arranging flights, and this often requires committing to a schedule weeks or months in advance in order to get reasonable prices. As for culture shock: on an overland trip, you have one bout of culture shock, then everything just blends into each other from then on. Flying across vast distances can give you multiple culture shocks every time you move.

We bought one way tickets to nowhere and didn't return until fifteen months later. If we could do that with eight kids in tow, I've full confidence you can do it on your own! Enjoy.

Thanks for the replies!
Yea I planned on just taking the initial flight, and maybe one to SE Asia depending on how much it is to get a boat over, I havent looked into that yet and then taking overland travel from then on!
Thanks for the encouragement mama-to-many haha, I will feel bad if I dont pull this off now =p
Cheers
Rhys