We will be in Australia Dec 6-Jan 4. We spend a great deal of our time birdwatching and visiting parks and such. We usually don't like to spend a lot of time stopping for breakfast and lunch when we do this in the US, so will have a cooler with some fruit, maybe some sandwich stuff, and beverages.

I have found a soft-side cooler that looks just like a soft briefcase so will be using it as a carryon, and then when we arrive, we will have our cooler! (or, is it esky?) So I am prepared there.

Our first stop is in Brisbane, and we will be driving first to Aaronlee Retreat which is just past Mt Tamborine and near Canungra. I have located a Coles Supermarket on the Tamborine Oxenford road. It seems like this may be a fairly big Australian chain grocery? Will this be a good place for our first stockup?

Side note, would they have things like throwaway phones? I am thinking it may be an idea to get a throwaway for the four weeks there for domestic calls. For my phone I can get an int'l package that will get me 99C a minute, but that is still pretty high for calls.

Coles and Woolworths (Woolies - sometimes called Safeway its old name) are by far the two biggest supermarket chains, with something like 80+% of the market.

IGA is a smaller independent one you will find in most small towns.

Aldi is in some places.

As to mobile phones Either Coles or Woolies should have them. Woolies more likely than Coles being that little bit bigger and slightly more upmarket.

Dick Smith is a major retailer of phones. Optus and Telstra the two main companies will have all sorts of deals for you.

A cooler is called an Esky here. Esky is one of those brand names that has come to mean all of that type not just a specific brand.

As to food Both Coles and Woolies have hot chickens and salads. This can make for a cheap meal rather than buying at cafes etc. They both have fairly extensive Deli sections.

We prefer Woolworths bakery bread to Coles. Also if you shop later in the day/evening you can get bread at half price.

Thanks very much for the info Peter.

Funny to hear Woolworth's. When I was growing up, Woolworth's was a five and dime store, often with a lunch counter. Where I live now, near Kansas City Missouri, Woolworth's was the site of a significant piece of civil rights history where sit-ins in many Woolworth's (started in North Carolina I think) at the lunch counters resulted in the lunch counters being desegregated at all Woolworth's stores.

I know what you mean Toucan, I too was raised with Woolworth's five and dime. In fact, I used to work in one. Different animal altogether to the Aussie Woolies though.

I use Telstra for cell phone service when in Australia, usually an introductory package that lasts for up to 30 days. You can buy the SIM card at newsagents and top it up by phone. My travel phone is a cheap unlocked Nokia and I've used it in Hong Kong as well.

We shop at Coles when staying with my daughter in WA. Expect similar selection but higher prices than you are used to, and if they offer a "buy two and save" promotion, don't expect to get one for half the promotion price. But on the plus side, you can buy half a cabbage or a squash, something we can't do here in Canada. Have you thought about ice for your Esky? If you are relying on bags of ice cubes, which should be easy to get, be sure to have a leak proof container.

And since we're reminiscing, do you remember Kresge's? I preferred it to Woolworths for their 15 cent sodas.

Sounds like a great trip. Let us know how you are making out.

Toucan I was hoping to catch up with you & I got a bit excited for a minute as I work/live not far from the woollies store you mentioned but I'm going to be working in Sydney the weekend of the 7/8th December


I'm not going to be able to catch up on the other end of your trip either.

That woollies store will be convenient for you to get to - on your way to Mt Tamborine.
I hope you really have a wonderful time Downunder.

We are Australian but have travelled a fair bit in America and have done the cooler/picnic food idea too, especially in the national parks. I know in America that every hotel seems to have an ice machine but you won't get that here. You can buy a big bag of ice (solid or crushed) at petrol stations. Or you could bring/buy a plastic freezer block and put that in your fridge freezer (assuming your hotel room has one) overnight.

Also if you are buying a SIM here, make sure you check the cost of domestic and international calls before you sign up. They are on the websites - try Telstra, Optus, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone. When we arrived home after living overseas we joined up with Telstra, who are the oldest and biggest, but very quickly found out they charge a fortune for calls. We switched to Virgin who are cheaper, but nothing like as cheap as calls/deals in the UK. I've heard Amaysim is cheap too.

By the way we prefer Woolies to Coles. Some Woolworths are still branded Safeway, it's the same company. IGA are good but much smaller stores. For good bread, try the local bakery. Every town has at least one.

Kay

Kay, one of the things I have loved about our previous trips to Australia are the bakeries and that you can always seem to also be able to buy sandwiches and meat pies at them. I will keep an eye out for them.

Stormbird, darn! I am so sorry I will miss you.

I will need to do more research on the phone thing and what will be best. I have an old blackberry that I was wondering if I could get a SIM card for, but I have no idea how that works. That is, do I have to have ATT do something with t he phone before i will be able to use it with a new SIM card? And thanks for the tips on the rates being online, I will check those out.,

Oh and also the ice! We didn't do coolers before so I don't think I ever looked for ice at hotels, so, thanks for the tips on that.

<< I have an old blackberry that I was wondering if I could get a SIM card>>

Blackberry's tend to be more awkward because in most cases you can't just put a normal SIM in and expect it to work, the blackberry service is not usually sold as prepaid

The Woolworths supermarket will sell bags of ice Toucan2

You can buy SIM cards all over the place but getting it to work in your phone is another thing! We had 4 phones with us on our recent USA holiday and none of them would work - for different reasons. It drives me mad. I think the old days of not being in touch because it just wasn't possible seem pretty good sometimes....

One thing I have learnt is your phone must be unlocked so you can use a SIM card from a different phone company. Also be wary of international charges, you hear horror stories of people getting enormous bills.

Kay

As a teenager I the 50's I worked in Coles and woolworths which were 5 and dime stores in Australia. Not sure when they changed to supermarkets.

Hm. Maybe I am back to just buying a throwaway for the month in Australia. I'll have my phone with me, but don't intend to use for calls there. I'll only have it because work pays for it and they want a way to reach me in case of emergency (it was the only way I could get them to let me off for 4 weeks).

thanks stormbird!

Hi toucan2, I've been struggling with this too. DH will have his ipad, and I would normally have my iphone. I would want to be able to send and receive e-mails and make the odd phone call.

Should I just buy a cheap PAYG phone in Australia? will that work in NZ too?

or should I try to pick something up in Hong Kong, which is our first stop?

I'll have my ipad as well. But, I know that we won't always have internet access. Some places yes,some no, so I def have to also take the iPhone.

I'm pretty much leaning to buy when we get there now.

<<Should I just buy a cheap PAYG phone in Australia? will that work in NZ too?>>

It will work in Australia and in NZ but the charges when you roam in NZ will be high when you make a call or try to use data

To send and receive emails easily you really need to use a smartphone, probably the cheapest would be around $99.

Personally, I would look at getting your own phone unlocked and just buy a $2 PrePaid and put credit on it. If you are out of your normal contract period most companies will do it for free

Hong Kong may or may not have some cheaper models in some of the electronic stores but when buying any electrical appliances in HK I stick with the larger retailers such as Fortress

Toucan also be aware that if you are travelling in national parks etc your telephone coverage may be minimal or non existant.

We live 20kms from Toowoomba but because of hills and where the towers are situated we have to go outside to a corner of the verandah to speak on our mobile phones. Reception is not good enough to be able to use it anywhere in the house. In some areas there is no reception.

When we went to the States last year my husband got a throwaway phone and I got a SIM for my IPhone and bought a data pack and used that for sending emails etc to family.

It will be hot when you visit. Be prepared for ice to melt. If you use the frozen bricks be aware that hotel refrigerators only have a tiny freezer to fit in a tray for ice cubes. Never enough room to refreeze bricks for the esky.

Thank you october fun. I've already been warning people that service may be sketchy. Some of the places we are staying won't have wireless either. That's okay with me, I don't want to be in touch 24x7. I do want to be in touch occasionally

We have been in the area twice before, at the same time of year. We do indeed expect the ice to melt! I was thinking the same thing about the frozen bricks, wondering if fridge's would have a freezer big enough for them.

geordie - thanks for the help. it looks as if toucan@ and I are after the same thing. trouble is that I've been told that it'll cost about £200 to get my iphone unlocked, which even if i make one call a week back home looks pricey. We just set up the i-pad to accept my e-mails so if i use that for e-mailing, and keep the phone turned off the vast majority of the time, that will have to do.