If you don't like the idea of packing up and heading off to Australia for a year to do nothing but have fun, then there's probably something wrong with you. So, assuming you're normal and DO want to head Down Under, then chances are the only thing stopping you is the cost.

Since we at Visa Bureau have haggled and conferred and consulted and even occasionally fist-fought to get our clients as many discounts and freebies as possible, the truth is that you're probably going to have to take that hammer to your piggie bank to make sure you don't run out of funds while you're Down Under.

As we don't like thinking of our clients struggling to find their next beer, begging for the last shrimp off the barbie or having to settle for the cheapest surfboard (and because the cost of your flight is probably the biggest cost of your entire working holiday), we've teamed up with our friends over at STA Travel to offer one lucky customer the chance to win the cost of your flights back!

The offer is exclusive to Visa Bureau clients, and entering couldn't be easier - just make sure that you book your flights with STA Travel by calling 0161 830 8764 or emailing visabureau@statravel.co.uk, as this will let STA Travel identify you as a Visa Bureau client.

Provided you then make a booking and completete payment for your flight to Australia through STA Travel between 1 May and 31 July, 2012, you could be in with a chance to win a full refund of the cost of your flights! 

Now, while winning would be just about the best thing ever, even if you don't bag the refund you can still get a great deal with Visa Bureau and STA Travel as every one of our clients booking flights with STA Travel is entitled to a £25 discount. Not bad, eh?

See below for full competition Terms and Conditions:

• Bookings must be made as a result of calling 0161 830 8764 or emailing visabureau@statravel.co.uk.
• Only bookings that have been fully paid and made between 1 May, 2012 and 31 July, 2012 will be entered.
• One entry per passenger.
• Only the flight price will be refunded (standard airline fees and other surface products are excluded).
• Maximum refund value of passenger ticket is £1,000 GBP to the card holder of original payment.

- Dominic Ladden-Powell is the Online Editor with the Australian Visa Bureau, an independent migration consultancy specialising in helping people lodge applications for a Working Holiday Visa to Australia.

©Visa Bureau 2003-2009

Visa Bureau takes no responsibility and cannot be held accountable for action taken as a result of any information or comment provided on this blog, and we recommend that you always seek a number of opinions before making a decision regarding your migration or visa application. Please refer to the Visa Bureau terms of use for more information.

We often like to kick these blogs off with a little comparison about why the cold, dark wintery gloom of Britain is in such stark juxtaposition with the summer sun and lovely girls in lovely thongs strutting the beaches of Sydney.

Yet as we approached May and, despite years of conditioning to the contrary, we got our hopes up that a beautiful British summer was hiding behind those clouds, just waiting with scorching 15 degree temperatures, irritable wasps looking for a cider to sit in and tattooed football fans looking to fight over whose pint the wasp's drowning in, you can understand our worry over this month's working holiday blog.

But then the rain came.

So, we've had nearly a month of rain here but, in true British fashion, we are also in a drought. Nearly constant, torrential downpour for almost a month and we still can't use our hosepipes, only in Britain. I don't know who wants to use their hosepipes when even the pavement is getting soggy but still, if they wanted to, they couldn't, under penalty of death (or moderate fines).

In conclusion, has our description of why being in Britain in May isn't a good idea ever really been this easy?

New Offer - Get a Greyhound 500km pass for AU$20!

Didn't think so, so if you're in Australia in May, not only are you the place to be right now but we also have a brand new offer for our platinum card members to add to all this cool stuff going on Down Under in May!

As usual we've got plenty of stuff to do across Australia but this month, for Platinum Card members only we've got Greyhound bus passes for just AU$20!

So what, I hear you say, we don't know how much they normally cost so how is that a saving?

Well, they usually cost AU$107 so I'm sure the quick witted amongst you..........and now the rest of you, have figured out that's a saving of AU$87 and the pass will get you 500km across Australia, that's 4 cents a kilometre!

To capitalise on this most awesome of awesome offers, just go to Greyhound and enter the code VISAKM in the 'promo' code box at checkout!

Sea food and eat it.

First up, we've got a lovely bit of grub to kick off May with a bang. If you're sick of discussing whether or not Marmite is nice (it's not), if Kangaroo tastes good (it does) or if Fosters is a decent beer (it's not) then you might be ready for something a little different.

Well if you happen to be in Queensland this week, head on down to Brisbane for the 18th annual Caxton Street Seafood and Wine Festival on the 6th of May for some great seafood and wine on the street, beat that for a description.

15,000 people turned up last year to sample some of the amazing delights on the menu as well as see the great line-up of performers.

It'll definitely be better than drinking Fosters and discussing Marmite.

Killin' it with St Kilda

Film festivals are top places to be, you can watch trashy films that would never make it on TV let alone the cinema and see some incredibly J list celebrities before bragging shamelessly to your friends later that you just watched the new Citizen Kane while being best man at Kevin Spacey's wedding at 'a really underground indy film festival you won't have heard of'.

If you're in Melbourne between the 22nd and the 27th you could have that very opportunity, while you might not meet the K-Space or see the next Citizen Kane, the St Kilda Film Festival 2012 still has plenty of great films from all genres and cultures on show for you to not fully appreciate, and then brag about later.

I would go out tonight, but I haven't got a stitch to wear

Backpacking is scruffy business: living out of an ageing backpack, washing your clothes as a Christmas present and spending months at a time in Saharan levels of heat probably isn't doing the best for your limited collection of threads.

Don't worry though as anyone in Adelaide between the 24th and 26th you can restock your depleting threads on the cheap, the very cheap. The Salvos Stores MASSIVE Clothing Sale takes place across almost all of the South Australian stores and, best bit, everything is AU$2,99!

Nearly nudity, tassles and boa feathers

We didn't need a more poetic title than that, we've got you now.

Burlesque is a traditionally sensual and evocative art form dedicated to the beauty that is woman which has, unfortunately, been high jacked by stripping and the whole art form has been lumped in with the clear heels, unwashed thongs and slight desperation that all men really see at strip clubs.

At least that's the flawless argument you can use when going to the Perth International Burlesque Festival between the 24th and 27th of this month.

The first annual Burlesque Festival celebrates everything about Burlesque with lessons, live shows, workshops and some of the best names in Burlesque.

Admit it though, we had you at the headline.

Delight in light in the Sydney sky at night

Sydney's iconic harbour sits comfortably in a list of the world's best sites to see: Times Square, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Visa Bureau offices, the Great Pyramid at Giza, Lassie's gravesite, any self respecting listmaker will always include the Opera House.

So, no doubt if you're over that way you'll already have seen it, perhaps even taken some hilarious picture where you're leaning against it or have your fingers on the top, you're so clever and original.

But if you haven't done that, or even if you have then get yourself back down to the harbour any time after the 25th to see Vivid Sydney, when for 18 days, the city becomes a blank canvas to be covered with light and music in a kaleidoscopic of architecturally epic proportions.

It'll be like an acid trip you can't escape, doesn't that sound nice?

- Dominic Ladden-Powell is the Online Editor with the Australian Visa Bureau, an independent migration consultancy specialising in helping people lodge applications for a Working Holiday Visa to Australia.

©Visa Bureau 2003-2009

Visa Bureau takes no responsibility and cannot be held accountable for action taken as a result of any information or comment provided on this blog, and we recommend that you always seek a number of opinions before making a decision regarding your migration or visa application. Please refer to the Visa Bureau terms of use for more information.

Autumn in England is supposed to be a heart-warming time filled with different shades of red and brown and green and stuff. What a British Autumn actually is is sodden wet leaves blown around a world of grey, a plummeting temperature and a population left fantasising about a summer that never happened.

Down Under on the other hand, Aussies bemoan the freezing 25 degree temperatures, the paltry 13 hours of sunlight and the fact that it's always raining (where always, in this case, equates to about the frequency of an eclipse).

So if you're Down Under this autumn, you'll need some stuff to do. Here's a look at some of the best events going on around Australia in April.

Outdoor 3d cinema - McLaren Vale - until the 7th of April

Outdoor cinemas are one of those things everyone thinks are cool but no one's ever been to one (or is that just me? I've got mates alright). Your typical cinema experience is a very wintery affair; no one wants to sit in a dark room for three hours while it's nice outside, which is why Australia's cinematic output is limited to Baz Lurhmann and Home n Away (quick, name an Australian film since Crocodile Dundee).

However, combine the two and you've got a great day out. So if you're in Adelaide before the 7th, head on down to the internationally renowned wine region of McLaren Vale for the Cinema Under the Stars season in which plenty of 3D films will be shown every evening.

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting - Western Australia - 7th of April

Don't pretend you didn't just sing that in your head.

Everyone wishes they could do Kung Fu, even the ones that can already do it know they'll never feel as cool as they did smashing their bedrooms wearing dressing gowns when they were seven(teen).

People often say the martial art they're studying weeknights at the dojo is an 'ancient art' when they're really doing Boxercise in the gym with Sarah from HR.

However, if you're in Perth on the 7th of the month and want to see a genuine ancient art that is also the coolest, head on down to the town of Bunbury to see the Shaolin Kung Fu show.

BMX Championships - Mount Gambier South Australia 12th to the 22nd

BMX has grown to be one of the most popular extreme sports in the world and, like all other extreme sports, is only made all the more entertaining when it goes wrong and someone goes head over heels with nothing to save them but a few planks of very unforgiving wood.

If BMXing was your extreme sport of choice during that slightly rebellious stage of your youth when you hung outside shops and tried to intimidate pensioners, head on down to Mount Gambier between the 12th and the 22nd for the Subaru Australian National BMX Championships.

Floating Football - Sydney - 12th to the 22nd

Whether you love football and miss it, or hate it but have been in Australia so long that you'll take any reminder of home, Sydney is the place to get that fix this month.

The Big Issue Street Football Festival isn't your average kickabout either, people hate football because they say it's boring but there's none of that here as the games are played on a floating pitch and the focus is on showing off as much as possible.

Held in the Darling Harbour, the 12 day festival is the perfect opportunity to show off to the Australians that just because we can't play cricket or rugby even though we invented them, we don't half know some insulting chants.

Lastly, if you want extreme, and we mean the sort of extreme that would make having a picture of your Nan’s face tattooed on your back during a bungee jump look like an evening in with your Nan listening to her views on tattoos, the sort of extreme that would make playing chicken with your space helmet in low orbit look like watching a chicken defrost, the sort of extreme that would make riding a nuclear bomb look like a ship in a bottle building competition then you need to get to Adelaide (in the most extreme way possible) by the 28th of April for the CROQUET WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!!1!!

Or not, whatever.

- Dominic Ladden-Powell is Online Editor with the Australian Visa Bureau, an independent migration consultancy specialising in helping people lodge applications for a Working Holiday Visa to Australia.

©Visa Bureau 2003-2009

Visa Bureau takes no responsibility and cannot be held accountable for action taken as a result of any information or comment provided on this blog, and we recommend that you always seek a number of opinions before making a decision regarding your migration or visa application. Please refer to the Visa Bureau terms of use for more information.

Christmas hijacked the words 'festive' and 'merry' and drowned them in forced cheer, family arguments and more calls than the Samaritans can handle. However, festive actually means 'of or relating to a festival' and merry means 'cheerful and lively'; we're bringing back the original meanings (original stuff is always best).

So if you're Down Under this March and are fed up with Australian politicians throwing hissy fits over who's leading the party or who ate all the cake (clearly Kevin Rudd), go and get merry and festive at some of the best festivals and events going down in March.

Merry festivus!

If you're in New South Wales at the minute and fancy a flick or two, the Byron Bay International Film Festival takes place between the 2nd and the 11th. Featuring award films from over 35 countries, more than 100 individual films will be screened throughout the city with many featuring workshops and introductions from the filmmakers.

If you fancy yourself as a bit of a fashion nut then first off, you never look as good as you think and someone else will always be looking better in the same shoes as you but more importantly, the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival takes place between the 8th and the 15th and offers you the chance to see some of the fashions no one but that girl you hate will be able to afford for at least a year.

Most of Australia has got stuff going on through March so wherever you are you won't be missing out but Canberra is the best place to be as the Canberra Festival kicks off. More than 50 events take place over the festival's 17 days and includes park symphonies, fireworks, films and, best of all, a gigantic balloon spectacular when balloons of all shapes and sizes take to the air to engage in a furious battle of gentle bumping.

You might agree that so far these listings, while still awesome, have tended to err on the gentler side of the fun scale and although they may offer some great days out, hardly offer much opportunity to have so much fun you hope you won't remember most of it later.

You can change all that though on the 9th when WOMADelaide kicks off in Botanic Park, featuring some of the best acts from around the world as well the chance to get so drunk and sun burnt you'll never want to leave.

If you can't get to Adelaide, or are in Adelaide but WOMADelaide isn't quite far enough off the chain, then the Future Festival might just be for you. With events across Australia, plenty of huge acts including The Wombats, Swedish House Mafia, Fatboy Slim and New Order.

Events are held in Brisbane (3rd), Perth (4th), Sydney (10th), Melbourne (11th) and Adelaide (12th).

Lastly but by no means leastly (that is a saying, from now on), the Melbourne International Comedy Festival gets underway at the end of the month. Held from the 28th of March ‘til the 22nd of April at various venues across the city, the best comedians head to Australia for one of the most famous and well respected comedy festivals in the world.

- Dominic Ladden-Powell is Online Editor with the Australian Visa Bureau, an independent migration consultancy specialising in helping people lodge applications for a Working Holiday Visa to Australia.

©Visa Bureau 2003-2009

Visa Bureau takes no responsibility and cannot be held accountable for action taken as a result of any information or comment provided on this blog, and we recommend that you always seek a number of opinions before making a decision regarding your migration or visa application. Please refer to the Visa Bureau terms of use for more information.

February in the UK is dark, damp and, if you're single, depressing. Still broke from Christmas and still stuck in the depths of winter, it's no wonder girlfriends, wives and boyfriends get upset when the one good thing about the month, Valentines Day, is forgotten.

But if you're in Australia however, then February is still the height of summer, temperatures rarely drop below a FREEZING 25 degrees across the country and the only cold people moan about is the temperature of their iced vegemite lollies (these definitely might exist).

So if you're Down Under this month and are keen to rub it in your British friends' faces, then here's a look at some of the best stuff going on this month.

What would an Australian summer, or an Australian Wednesday for that matter, be without surfing? The Australian Open of Surfing takes place between the 11th and 19th of February and doesn't JUST include some of the world's top names in surfing cleaving through some of the world's top surfing waves but also features plenty of live music, fashion shows and skateboarding events for those moments when you're glancing away from the water.

The Australian summer is the time for late nights on warm porches, cold beer on hot beaches and spicy barbecues on neighbours' porches (when they're not in), it is NOT the time for swimming 2 km, cycling EIGHTY THREE km and then rounding the day off with a nice gentle MARATHON.

The Jervis Bay Triathlon Festival offers plenty of different race options between the 17th and 19th, but if you're sensible, or just obese, you can do the proper thing and just sit back on the beach with a nice cold beer (or vegemite lolly) and indulge in that most popular of pastimes: watching other people work.

Canberra is the place to be in February as the world's largest short film festival comes to town on the 19th. Tropfest, which regularly attracts a whopping 150,000 a day started life as a simple screening in a Sydney cafe but has since grown to one of the most popular events in world cinema with events not just in Australia but London, Berlin, New York and Bangkok.

If you're in or around Melbourne between the 24th and 26th, why not head down to Phillip Island to witness the best fusing of man and machine since Darth Vader took his helmet off and scared you behind the couch (your mum told us): Superbikes. Taking place over two days on Phillip Island the Superbike World Championship is fast, furious and about as dangerous as playing with fireworks on a level crossing; superbikes make Formula 1 look like the kid with glasses and asthma on cross country day.

The Adelaide Fringe Festival runs from the 24th February until the 18th March is now the largest arts festival in Australia with 52 years' worth of history to back it up. While it may be not as famous as its Scottish cousin the Edingburgh Fringe Festival, it packs just as much of a punch with hundreds upon hundreds of comedy shows, circus events, dancing events, film screenings and so much culture you'll need a cold compress and a Jeremy Kyle marathon to get over it.

- Dominic Ladden-Powell is Online Editor with the Australian Visa Bureau, an independent migration consultancy specialising in helping people lodge applications for a Working Holiday Visa to Australia.

©Visa Bureau 2003-2009

Visa Bureau takes no responsibility and cannot be held accountable for action taken as a result of any information or comment provided on this blog, and we recommend that you always seek a number of opinions before making a decision regarding your migration or visa application. Please refer to the Visa Bureau terms of use for more information.

Australia celebrated its 224th birthday today and across the country people took to the streets, to the beaches and to the parks for parties, barbecues and fireworks displays in one of the most eagerly anticipated days of the year.

Here are some of the best things that went on all over Australia today.

Brisbane

Although citizenship ceremonies to welcome new Australians took place across the country, the biggest citizenship ceremony in the country took place in Brisbaine when 3,850 people from 114 countries pledged themselves to Australia at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Across town, a slightly less civilised but infinitely more fun affair got underway with the first annual Bellyflop Competition at the Moorooka Bowls Club took place.

Perth

An unexpected rain storm attempted to dampen the spirits in Perth but didn't succeed as locals took to the streets to watch a magical fireworks display which combined with sheet lightning to create a dramatic display unlike anywhere else.

Melbourne

Fireworks displays are part and parcel of the proceedings on Australia Day at the Australian Open but this year the flashing lights and loud bangs in the sky could do nothing to deter spectators' attentions from the firework display going down on the court as Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer went to head to head once again in one of sport's greatest ever rivalries.

Nadal had to produce his best tennis to beat the Swiss Maestro and come from a set down as he battled to win 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 7-6 (7-5) 6-4. He goes through to await either current world number one and reigning champion Novak Djokovic or Britain's Andy Murray.

Over in the women's draw, the show was no less spectacular as tennis's number one star Maria Sharapova fought past a resilient Petra Kvitova in three sets to reach the final while Belarussian Victoria Azarenka reached her first Grand Slam final after winning a nail biting contest against reigning champion Kim Clijsters.

Sydney

In Sydney Australians gathered at Sydney Harbour, the country's most iconic tourist location, citizens gathered to watch the Australia Day Ferry Race while the Australian Army's 7th Field Regiment provided the soundtrack with a 21 gun-salute at Farm Cove

While the weather may not have been the blazing sunshine many would normally expect in the height of summer, thousands of people still gathered on Bondi Beach to barbecue, drink beers and maybe even take part in the Australian Day thong challenge which isn't nearly as rude as it suggests, especially for a beach famed the world over for its beautiful people and skimpy swimwear.

Instead, hundreds upon of hundreds of people took to the water on giant inflatable thongs (the sandal) in an attempt to break the previous year's record of over 2,000 people.

Adelaide

Over in Adelaide, they also took part in the thong challenge, although with only 500 people they remained sadly some way behind their Sydney rivals.

The reason for their failure however, might simply have been that most people were watching the cricket, too busy engrossed in the nation's favourite sport to venture down the beach with a blow up shoe.

It was worth it too as Australia continued to flatten India in the fourth and final Test match of the series with the tourists not managing to get anywhere near Australia's massive 604-7.

©Visa Bureau 2003-2009

Visa Bureau takes no responsibility and cannot be held accountable for action taken as a result of any information or comment provided on this blog, and we recommend that you always seek a number of opinions before making a decision regarding your migration or visa application. Please refer to the Visa Bureau terms of use for more information.

While you may be too late to enjoy the incredible fireworks on show in Sydney Harbour, if you're in Australia in January don't worry because as the temperature begins to climb in the Australian summer, so too does the amount of things to do.

The average January temperature in Sydney is a balmy 26 degrees C but with the climate able to scale heights as high as a whopping 45 degrees C, make sure to keep cool if you plan to enjoy the delights of the Sydney Festival 2012.

The Sydney Festival is an almost month long celebration of the arts and culture which involves theatres, music, dancing and art exhibitions.

Particular highlights of the festival include famed DJ Norman Jay who will be parking his double decker bus in Hyde Park on 7th January to kick off a marathon eight hour dance session while on the 13th of January, Clairy Brown and the Bangin' Rackettes will be tearing up the stage to bring a raucous end to the first Friday of the festival.

Aside from music there are more than 20 individual theatrical performances spread over the duration of the festival and if your Sydney Festival experience is aimed toward the end of the month, stick around for the 26th when the whole city comes together to throw a giant party to celebrate the national holiday Australia Day.

Aside from the festival, one of sport's most popular events gets underway in Melbourne in the third week of January with the Australian Open. While the men's game continues to get ever more competitive with Novak Djokovic attempting to solidify his position at the pinnacle of the game and Andy Murray tries to keep up, the women's game remains as unpredictable as ever, although with Sam Stosur becoming Australia's first female Grand Slam champion in decades with her win at last year's US Open, Australian tennis fans have something to look forward since the decline of Lleyton Hewitt.

What would spending the summer in one of the world's hottest and most beautiful locations be if you didn't spend at least most of your waking hours on the beach? While you may not be quite energetic enough to take part, the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Ironman & Ironwoman Series which takes place in Queensland and New South Wales, just the chance to see 36 of Australia's toughest and strongest lifeguards take to the waves might be just the thing to make you relax, even if the athletes don't as they battle the tide and the heat with swims, runs and paddles.

 - Dominic Ladden-Powell is Online Editor with the Australian Visa Bureau, an independent migration consultancy specialising in helping people lodge applications for a Working Holiday Visa to Australia.

©Visa Bureau 2003-2009

Visa Bureau takes no responsibility and cannot be held accountable for action taken as a result of any information or comment provided on this blog, and we recommend that you always seek a number of opinions before making a decision regarding your migration or visa application. Please refer to the Visa Bureau terms of use for more information.