Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
I think it is a good idea in general for young people to see the world. I met many aussies travelling - do you think many youths there feel isolated from the rest of the world, and that is one reason they travel/work abroad for so long?
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You nailed it. It's a country of 20M with little in the way of neighbours that are culturally similar enough to easily get to know them well. There's this little cluster of islands with 4M people off to the east, but's about it. For how much we Canadians have a love/hate relationship with our friends to the south, I never truly appreciated how much they influence our lives until I moved somewhere where there isn't that kind of presence all the time. There's nothing like that here, the presence is Australia, that's it.
Other than NZ, neighbouring countries are very, very different... in the time you would take to fly to Vegas, I'd be in Papua New Guinea. Young people do go to the surrounding countries, whether they be in SE Asia or Oceania. But that's a tourist experience, as opposed to living your life elsewhere to absorb things in depth like people do when they live a year or two in Canada (which by the way is not where most go to; that's the UK).
Hell, even a middle-aged guy like me has vacationed in NZ, Tonga, Vietnam and Singapore in the last 2 years. It's what you do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Simple. Skiing and snowboarding in Australia sucks.
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You're being generous, it's not even that good. And since it's a pretty small part of the country that can drive to the snow in Oz, if you're getting on a plane, might as well just fly to NZ where it's much better.