Help! Please!

I think it would be very difficult to raise the €24k, having done Australia myself. I can't speak for NZ. You also have to consider whether you guys can take the strain for 3 years. That's a long time. Travel has its ups and its downs. You may find it harder without the support of both families. Phone, IM, email and letters are one thing, physical contact another. There's also the question of what it would do to your careers - that's quite a break you're taking.

This probably all occurred to you too. :-)

I say play it by ear, keep the notice you need to give on your house to say something like 1 month.

It is really up to you guys what you wanna do. To me it sounds great being away for that long but maybe you would be better off going for year first or just go for a longer holiday living on your savings?? I would probably have done a really good holiday and just enjoy it all with not having to worry about money. Especially since you have the house to consider back home!

I would not worry about being away from family and friends when you are travelling together and love each others company.

I doubt you will be able to save up a lot of money doing regular jobs like bars, fruit picking or whatever. It is cheaper to live here than Ireland and that also makes the pay a lot lower! Trust me, it is hard to earn 17-20 AUS when you are use to closer 30 AUS back home! (I'm from Scandinavia originally) And then save money out of this when on the road? I think it will be hard.

It is really up to you guys unless you wanna sell the house (and start all over when you get back home) I would chose a long and relaxing holiday.

In regards to financing travel I think there are 2 rules that every traveller would be wise to follow.

1. Never go into debt to pay for travel. That's called, you can't afford it.
2. Never count on finding work to fund travel. Work to supplement travel funds and extend the length of time you can spend in a place is fine if you can get it.

So having said that and given your circumstances, I would say go ahead and head for OZ as planned. If you find work, stay for as long as the work will fund your stay. Move on to NZ and do the same. If you manage to leave NZ with your 7k or more fine, even if you leave with a bit less than your 7k that's fine. Just travel SEA on what you have until it runs out and then go home.

That means being flexible in your housing arrangements obviously and not committing to any long term notice arrangements. If you end up not finding work in OZ or NZ, find yourself down to 3k after 2 months of trying a month in each, you do a short visit to SEA and head home having only been gone 4 months, so be it.

No one can guarantee that you will find work at all, never mind be able to save from it if you do. But that doesn't mean you have to worry about it. Cross the bridge when you come to it. As long as you have enough money to buy a ticket home, what have you really got to worry about?
Here are 2 more points to ponder. They are the 2 rules of life.

1. Don't sweat the small stuff.
2. It's all small stuff.

In other words, if it won't kill you it ain't worth worrying about.

It is very hard to save decent amounts of money doing backpacking jobs in NZ. You'll be typically earning between 10 and 14 dollars an hour, before tax, in backpacker jobs like bar work, fruit picking, labouring etc. Convert that back into Euros and you see that it doesn't add up to much, particularly when you consider that basic costs for food, entertainment and the like are relatively high here compared to earnings.

From what I hear talking to backpackers here, it is easier to save money in Oz as wages are relatively higher compared to the cost of living.

Hm I find the food nearly as expensive as in Scandinavia or Ireland.

In Port Douglas, for example, which is a major tourist town where lots of backpackers work, the rate of pay for waitressing is about $20 per hour. Rent is high. You won't get anything like 40 hours per week and most backpackers who are trying to save money work two jobs. The other one being cleaning. The pay is the same. $20 per hour is about the average best you will get paid for most casual jobs/ packpacker jobs whether you are temping in an office in Sydney or working in tourism. If you got a permanent skilled position in an office in Sydney you could get better pay. Rent in Sydney is high also.

But i think #3's advice is sound.