Emigrating to Norway from outside the EU

I know these posts must get tiresome over here, but I'd still like to try, some of my questions haven't really been answered in the other threads I've read, and I'd be hugely grateful of any personal opinions/suggestions on the matter.

My overall goal is to move to, live, and work in Norway. I have preferences, but in the end, I will take what I can get. I grew up and currently live in Australia. I just graduated Uni (doing Information Technology) not so long ago and have been working since before I graduated as a web/iOS developer. I have been learning Norwegian for about a year while living in Australia, but without much time or many places to practice, my ability to understand other people talking at normal speed is not so great (I can't talk fluently either). But do have a good basic understanding. I will continue to work on my language skills between now and when I move, of course.

My plan is to keep working in Australia until I can save enough money (say, AUD30k-40k or NOK175k-230k) to sustain myself for a reasonable period of time, until I can get a job (the sooner the better). So I would be moving there around early 2012/late 2011. The best case would be to find somewhere willing to sponsor me for a residence permit, and although I'm not very optimistic about that, it's the only way to stay in the country for more than two years. Any suggestions (or encouragement!) on this (finding a job willing to sponsor you) would be great?

So, I would really like to try my luck at Tromsø. I visited there last year, and absolutely fell in love with the place. What are my chances like trying to get a job there? I think my technical proficiency is fairly good, but as far as I gather, to get a residence permit/work visa you pretty much have to be so damn impressive that they want to jump through hoops to get you on-board. Am I being completely unrealistic, trying to get such an IT job in Tromsø, having sub-standard Norwegian skills and being a couple of years out of uni? The reason I would prefer to steer clear of Oslo is that I would love to have easy access to the mountains and fjords. Bergen would be good also, and would be my second choice if Tromsø were not possible. I considered Ålesund, but I think that I'd be pushing my luck enough as it is with Tromsø.

Another concern I have is making friends. I guess the obvious answer is that you make friends where you work, and fair enough, that's good. Are there usually clubs that do group hikes and stuff in summer/winter? I'd love to go hiking as often as possible but doing it myself as Australian barely any winter experience, I don't think that's such a great idea. I have a couple of contacts already, and will work on that between now and then, but I would be grateful to hear experiences/suggestions.

But please, be completely realistic. At this point, I've been thinking about it for almost 18 months and I'm already committed to making it happen. I just need to figure out the best way of doing it. I would really love to just hear your opinion and discuss it with people who have experience. Thanks so much for reading!

P.S. A couple of things I just thought of ... I will most likely be going by myself. and I'll probably be looking to rent an apartment straight away (is that OK, not having a residence permit?).