Phones: I strongly advise to avoid global roaming on your cell unless it is a serious emergency. You will be bent over with fees in a way that is hard to describe – a good habit to get in is simply turning your smart phone to airplane mode as soon as you land and only turning it on when you get somewhere with free wifi. As we get closer to the time, I’ll allocate out the numbers of some pre-paid local cell phones (I have a bunch left over from the Kardashian job) so you can communicate with each other and me at regular fees while Down Under and will have a number to leave on your US voice mail if someone really needs to get hold of you in an emergency (e.g. my voice message when I’m at home says “…hey, don’t leave a message here as I’m out of the country, email is best, Skype is good too or call this Aussie number between these dates if you really need to talk to me” sort of thing).
Interwebs: there is nowhere near the availability or speed of wifi service (especially free) in Australia as there is in the States., especially once you leave the major cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. I’d forgotten how annoying that is after living in the land of the (free) wifi for five years so be prepared. Our instinct to immediately update our status or check emails upon landing either need to be curbed or paid for (usually an amount like $4.95 for an hour at the airport or something equally outrageous). Couple of tips: there are nearly always free wifi at McDonalds restaurants; major chain hotel lobbies will sometimes have ‘guest’ services you can jump on and some cafes will have free wifi. If a cafe or pub do have wifi it will be advertised so try to avoid asking a busy barista if they have free internet as the request is likely to earn a withering stare, like “…can’t you entertain yourself offline even for the time it takes to drink this amazingly good latte??” All of the friends you are staying with in Hobart will have wifi, however plans are expensive (another monopoly provider situation) so the etiquette for me when staying with mates and piggy-backing on their network is usually something along the lines of “…hey, I’d love to jump online for a bit to check emails, are you guys on a limited plan?” or “…if I promise not to stream endless hours of hardcore porn, can I jump on your network to connect with home?”
tassiepalooza 