Wild Wild West

Traveling through and getting settled in are very different things. We have been here in Perth a week now, and things are just starting to come together for us. If you imagine Australia as the US, Cairns (where we were) would be about where Maryland is, and Perth would be Los Angeles. Our eyes ache from looking at jobs, cars, and places to live on the computer. The amount of competition for everything here is incredible. When a decent add for a job or place to stay hits the websites, it is not unusual for it to have 500+ views in a couple hours!

Anyhow, as always it usually comes down to who you know. The people we were staying with over the last week have introduced us to some really nice friends of theirs who had an available room, so now we're very well set for another week. I have gotten a job here in the city selling solar panels door to door. Not what I saw myself doing exactly, but the money is (potentially) good, and it's not as bad as you would expect. New experiences...Meanwhile, Krista and I both had an interview for farming jobs driving giant modern equipment for wheat seeding. Pretty exciting as we'll never get to do something like that again, and the money is good as well. We don't have the experience they wanted, but we think they liked us, so we have our fingers crossed. We should hear back on that soon. So, this time round Krista gets to sit pretty and wait to see what happens while I work...last time it was the other way, so fair is fair.

We have some leads for work one way or the other, so we're a bit less freaked out. When we first got here I felt a bit like a minnow in the crashing surf that is Perth, but it's calming a bit now....chat to ya soon, a lot should be happening!

Catching Up

Hi everyone!
I know its been a while since we've written, and so much has happened! Through some friends at the hostel, Jared got his dream job, just what every boy dreams of...solar panel telemarketer! He charmed the pants off everyone and managed to make a sale his first day...this was quickly followed by a more expected day, in which the first person who answered told Jared  "You can go **** yourself!" I will never be mean to telemarketers again (probably)...anybody else got a guilty conscious? (Dad...? haha)

I was still working at the seafood restaurant, but not very happily. Another waitress who had just been hired had come from Perth, and she couldn't say enough good things about it. This was about the umpteenth Perth endorsement we'd heard, so on a whim Jared purchased some cheap plane tickets and we were committed to going across the country! I was dreading quitting the restaurant since they had treated me pretty well (the first day I was thinking about telling them I was quitting they first offered me half a bottle of 200 dollar wine...needless to say I put it off another day!). When I finally did tell them and give them a week and a half notice, they took me off the schedule! Jared had a similar experience with his shifts being cut, just when we really needed the moolah. 

After saying goodbye to our friends in Cairns, it was off to Perth...people had been telling us that Perth was really crowded and it might be hard to find a place. We really should have looked earlier, but that day before our evening flight we exhausted every resource for accommodation we knew...and that's a lot. Hostels, Couchsurfing, Air BnB, and finally it was down to the dreaded hotel. Jared and I have stayed in a grand total of 0 hotels since our trip began last February, and we were ashamed that it had come to this...paying full price for just a bed! But when you have landed at 10 pm and want nothing more than to sleep, your standards go down...or up, whichever way you look at it. We booked the absolute cheapest thing we could find online for 110 bucks and caught a cab across town. When we got there they said that the room was not actually available anymore but they felt sorry for us so they gave us the last room they had...a business suite, for the same price. Yay!

In short, I have never ever seen a city with less accommodation for the thousands of people that come through daily (it's a mining town, so there are tons of people who stay a week before heading back to the mines)...If 10 new hotels opened up tomorrow, there would be no rooms left in about 10 minutes. This lets the hotels that actually do exist charge ridiculous rates...as much as 400 a night for just an ok hotel. Apparently Perth is the fourth most expensive city in the world, for living in general. So much for thinking the streets of Perth were going to be paved in gold...apparently everybody else thought so too, and I guess they just ripped up all the gold to pay for the crazy cost of living here.

After a day of panic, we have managed to find ourselves a share house for 400 a week and reverted ourselves to a mild level of panic. We hope to find a job this week and are basically devoting ourselves to the job hunt every second of every day, so keep your fingers crossed for us! We'll update as soon as we know anything.

P.S. We don't want to hear any I told you so's yet!

Slow Days...

Well, the last few days have been a bit slow....with the exception of an exciting job prospect in one of Australia's best fishing and diving areas. It would be far too discouraging to describe it in full in case it doesn't happen...so more on that later. In the mean time I am going to cut corners and copy/paste an email I wrote when I was less lazy. A few people have asked me about Australia (when to come and the like), and in an effort to possibly drum up more potential visitors, here is some handy info! A fair warning though...if you are already a bit tired or bored, definitely don't read on! More on the exciting job soon!

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Well Howdy,

Luckily for you, I don't even need to waste time researching...I am, at present, a fully saturated sponge of Australian knowledge. For example: Did you know that Australia once lost a Prime Minister as unceremoniously as you might lose a left sock? He jumped in the the bay one day for a quick dip, accompanied by the expected procession of staff, and was never seen again.

Anyhow, and more to the point, I am excited you might visit, and I do have some opinions that I feel could help. Firstly, $1300 is not an unreasonable round-trip price as it is a very long way away. Skyscanner.com is a great resource. That said, I would be surprised if you were able to find it cheaper than $1200 - $1300 anyhow...;( With Skyscanner, search LAX to Australia and it will show you prices for all the different airports.

As far as where to go, that's the hardest question of all. Weather wise, it will be the middle of winter here in May. The north jungilly bits will be dry and mild compared to the hell sauna they are now. The south of the country (Sydney and definitely Melbourne) will be cold and grey from what I hear (50's in the day). Also, the "winter" in the north is a great time to do the reef because all (most) of the awful stinging killing things migrate elsewhere leaving the waters relatively safe. Cairns is the city to go to for the reef...you can venture further north, but you'll still fly into Cairn's regional airport. It is also a great place to see the rainforest in relative safety (great hospital in Cairns) and the Altheron tablelands...a beautiful fruit growing jungle area full of waterfalls and the like. So, in short, for that time of year, I would fly into Sydney to see it, then fly to Cairns for the jungle and reef. From Cairns, do a flight to the outback (Alice Springs or somewhere else) and then return to Brisbane, Melbourne, or Sydney for a flight home.

I definitely agree with not trying to see the entire country. The size is a bit of a shock, and ground transport is completely out of the question. You'll have to leave the south coast and the west for another trip and another time of year.

Despite a sizable bout of laziness at the time of this email writing, I did get up and walk  to the travel desk to find the price of getting a full dive certification on the reef. Unfortunately the guy was occupied with 4 Swedish girls, and as I approached I heard one of them ask "so, do you guys offer trips to the reef." Knowing how long that was likely to take, I immediately gave up and walked back to my room. It would be a fair question except for the fact that the reef is the only reason anyone comes to this town, and any travel desk that didn't offer a reef trip would be promptly laughed out of the business. So, I don't really know the total cost, but it's about $80 a dive and you would need 4 over 2 different days to go home certified. Equipment seems to always be included in the price, so I would guess the total cost at about $600 (possibly less) for a nice experience with a good company (ocean freedom's power boat out of Cairns is a very friendly and well run operation with a very cool Scottish Captain). I would say it would be totally worth it. Do it!

As far as landmarks go, Uluru rock is as classically Australian as the Sydney Opera House. Beyond that, Australia is full to the brim with strange formations and geologic oddities. You'll just have to a bit of searching. For ideas, I like trolling pre-packaged tours that tell you all the stops.

Unfortunately, I can't say where we'll be tomorrow any more than I could say where we'll be in May, but I am sure we can get together!

...

With all that quality info, I expect boatloads of visitors!