traveloehrs

72 uninterrupted hours of pelting rain and grey skies and I am starting to go crazy!  For 3 nights straight the tin roof of our loaner camper has sounded like a Caribbean steel drum band jamming 2 feet from my face and they refuse to take a set break.  All of our clothes are saturated, our towels are sopping, and our camper is muggy and stinky.  It’s even worse because the temperatures have been persistently set in the high 50’s or low 60’s (We enjoyed the coldest December day on record in Queensland).  To top it off my deodorant stopped working and trying to find a “permanent lease” has been impossible.  Sometimes planning ahead can be a detriment, as New Zealand worked out beautifully because we were able to take advantage of whatever came our way as we had no plan and zero expectations.  In Oz our lack of planning has been more of a struggle.  Dec-Jan is a period known as “schoolies” because the nippers have their summer vacation and the entire country goes on holiday.  Every rental unit on the coast or within 30 minutes gets booked months in advance and the prices go up four or fivefold.  We have been laughed out of nearly every real estate office that we entered.  “Mate, you won’t find anything til February at a minimum, especially furnished.”  As the door hit us on the way out of countless offices we would hear “bah, ha, ha, ha!”  We were literally begging to give our money away and they can’t be bothered because they are too busy lining up “holiday rentals”.  Even the few available apartments have “inspection times” which means that the realtors will only show the rental for 10 minutes once a week.  Two problems arose from this…first, all the inspections have been held at the same exact times.  We found 4 properties that we wanted and each had the inspection at 3 on Wednesday.  There is an interesting rule here whereby you are NOT ALLOWED to apply for a property unless you have inspected it.  So we were forced to roll the dice and go view one property.  Secondly, when we get to the inspection there were four other couples waiting to view the same apartment.  One of the couples is so pregnant that the wife looks like she could give birth at any moment.  I know the baby card will be played and we will be trumped.  Sure enough this happens when the realtor calls to tell us that the apartment was given to another couple.  The needle search continues and we have to wait a week for the next round of inspections.  It’s maddening!!!  On the bright side, we do have a camper so our current home is mobile and the waves have been good so I have been sneaking in sessions to stay sane.  I don’t know how Nug has kept it together but luckily she has been flexible and in a great mood because that has made all the difference.