Must admit that on our NZ/Australia reccy, we found Australia a lot nicer than we expected. The streets, shopping areas, houses seemed so much better. The atmosphere was of a country going places.

We seriously looked into immigrating there but found it would take up to a year to get a decision and the agents we spoke were not too sure we would get in as husband wanted to live in NSW - an area which did not give extra points to our application.

In comparision, NZ seemed shabbier. However, it does not have the snakes and insects Australia has, nor the strong summer heat. We were also told that the tax situation in Australia is complicated, and our tax situation is complicated enough.

I'm off to Brisbane for a week at the end of June, so I'll have another chance to compare the two countries. ::)

:)