Jet-setter Jones

Farm work.

The big: Should I, shouldn’t I of 2016/17.

As you may or may not know, the Australia working holiday visa works as follows: in order to get a second year (before the age of 31 where most countries deem you too old and senile to get a working visa), you must have completed 88 days of regional work, otherwise known as farm work.

Now, my situation is a little individual. I am already 30, I already have my visa for New Zealand. That means I’m out.

Or does it….?

The Australian government are currently discussing plans to change the age of the working holiday visa to 35.

I have been back and forth over this should-I-shouldn’t-I decision as if my life depends on it. My little broken mind has dragged me through every emotion, ruminating on all possible outcomes and eventualities.

This is a bad idea because: I won’t get time to travel; to see any of the amazing country that is Australia. The very reason I am here, away from home. Farm work will be hard, or boring, or exhausting. Quite possibly all of the above. You hear so many horror stories about farming. Scams and cons, people not being paid or not getting their days signed off or simply not earning enough to make the cut.

But this is a good idea because: I have found a trusty farm through a family friend with a decent wage. It will be a new experience that I won’t ever get the chance to have again. If they change the age tof 35, I’m back in, ready to go for a second year of working and actually travelling and if they don’t, I can come back in on a tourist visa and catch all the bits I missed the first time over. I will still have 4 weeks left on my visa after I complete the work. Enough time for a cheeky East coast tour and to visit my family up in Queensland. And, with a decent wage in a place where there’s not a huge amount to spend it on, I should be saving a reasonable amount. Here I come Vanuatu, Fiji, Japan ❤

The truth is, I can’t see into the future. I can’t predict the outcome and neither can anyone else. It’s a gamble, sure. But one that will see me earn a lot of money and have a new life experience.

I’m still worrying about it but the decision is made. They say you only regret things you didn’t do and sure, if they don’t increase the age that probably will turn into “spending a year in Australia and never making it to the Daintree Rainforest, Ningaloo Reef, cage diving in Port Lincoln or even Perth”, but hell, I’ll only be in New Zealand and if they do increase the age and I haven’t done my Farm work, surely the regret being “I can never go back for an extended period of time or to work in a country I could see myself living in” would be so much worse. Sometimes, you have to grab an opportunity by the balls and just say fuck it, gimme what you got and let’s see where we end up.

So, I am preparing to get grubby, muddy, sweaty, exhausted and hate life a little for 88 days all to potentially get me another 365 in this place I could see as home.

P.S. big thank you to the two Jenna’s in my life and Ross for being so patient with me whilst I fathom what my silly mind wants to do. ❤