Life of a cook/chef in Australia/NZ?

[SevenEightOh]

I am a Canadian cook/chef moving from Montreal to Australia or New Zealand sometime between September and November of this year for an indeterminate amount of time, and I'm frightfully excited for the adventure. My travels will be a learning experience; to see what people are doing on the other side of the globe and to see something new. However, before I go I wanted to do some research and to get some insight from local professionals and food lovers. If anyone would be willing to help me and to answer a few questions (privately or publicly over these boards), that would be immensely helpful.

This is not me looking for a job, per se, but an idea of the food culture and life as a professional. Questions of standard of living, WHERE to live in WHAT cities, restaurants to apply to (that may or may not be in guidebooks), restaurants to avoid (those rarely discussed reputations of chefs being good leaders or not), etc. Feel free to be as opinionated as possible towards anything

So far, I'm leaning towards Melbourne and Sydney because that's all we hear of in the Great White North. . . but, I imagine that I've missed something, or many things.

Thank you very much in advance!

[ryangary]

I tried to move to Australia a few years ago and my Visa application was denied(still not entirely sure why). I sent out applications for jobs beforehand and they all said they would not hire me unless I had a visa. I am still kinda bitter about not being able to go and hope your experience is rewarding. If I went I think I would have stayed in Melbourne or Brisbane as Sydney seems to be very expensive.