July 2014
Credit card: -£350
AU bank account: $150
When we arrived at airlie beach I'd pre-booked a hostel for everyone else that we paid for on arrival. The hostel offered free transport from the bus stop so everything was pretty breezy. Booked a taxi the following morning to get the ferry to Whitsundays. The ferry cost us $50 each for one way. Ouch!! Hadn't had a proper meal in a while yet either.
My first Impression of the whitsundays was just a bit... Meh. It looks amazing on tv, the water is so clear the islands are so beautiful and our journey to Hamilton just looked pretty average, sure the islands were pretty but not paradise. Maybe it was the route we did? The only possible sign of paradise was the clear water at day dream island. That was it. I wish I had more enthusiasm about the place and I wish so so much that I had the money to go scuba diving and see Whitehaven beach so I was able to talk about how beautiful the place is and what a fantastic time I had.
When we met Chris he gave us a grand tour of the island before dropping me off for my first shift. First proper job woooo!!!
The work was very fast paced and I had to learn how to make a bed. Sounds daft but when you make a bed to a 5 star standard a lot more is involved than you think. Just to give you an idea, the shower glass alone had to be cleaned 3 times with 3 different sprays. The pillow cases had to have the opening in the centre, it was all very detailed and meticulous. Everything had to be perfect. The sofas cushions had to be taken away so every part of that was clean.... I could go on and on... I got to see how the rich folk live. Everyone who goes to Hamilton island for a vacation has money. The whole place is expensive. They have golf buggies instead of cars to "maintain the image of the island." Ridiculous. 1 general store. Expensive. 1 fish and chips, a pharmacy, a school and a doctors. 1 beautiful beach with a stunning view of islands ahead and harbours full of posh yachts and boats and an airport. Apparently a number of celebrity's choose this island as a place for their vacation. If I was rich It would be the last place I would go to.
Chris needed me to drive a big van and reverse park it next to the apartment we were viewing. I crashed it into the curb, it was so close to perfect parking, just a weee bit too far back. Fortunately Chris got out of the van and left so he didn't know... Minimum damage done to the van. The guys had left their stuff outside the apartment and 2 estate agents needed a decision there and then. They were asking for $1600 which included a down payment and rent in advance. It also meant we had to have the property for a minimum of 6 months (the jobs also required us to stay for 6 months but none of us were planning on staying that long) apparently every property to rent on the island was like this. I was prepared to do it as long as I had others to chip in and share the cost. The estate agents shift was coming to an end and nobody had arrived yet for me to make a decision with anyone, I called everybody. no answer. I had no idea what to do. I needed this place to secure a job and at this point I needed a job to get out of debt. I was prepared to put the whole thing on my credit card and when it came to breaking the 6 month lease I'd just have to let them keep the down payment and find someone else to rent the apartment and deal with it all as and when It came to it...
Finally everybody arrived 5 mins before the estate agents shift was ending. Yvonne, anton and matt had joined us. Adam met these in his hostel in cairns and they hitch hiked here to get work also.
I was pretty pissed off at this moment, I felt like a big tonne had been placed on my shoulders and I was just meant to deal with it while everybody had fucked off and we all had to make this big decision in 2 mins. I started to explain what the estate agents had told me and how I was prepared to go ahead when Sam pulled me aside and got me to think about things logically. I was panicking. Sam was right when she said something didn't feel right when we got this job, I thought she was just being negative but Sams just a realist. She asked me how I'm going to deal with finding someone else to take over the lease, what the point in putting myself in to debt was for if I was going to be here for less than 6 months...that I had to consider what I was going to do with Craig and how If I stayed the 6 months it would mean working during his stay here. Al l the necessary questions, then matt cut in (who I'd never met before) and wanted to know what was going on and I just barked back at him and said he can't just cut half way through a discussion asking questions (we had 1 min to make a decision I had no time to explain to matt) which he responded "oh il just fuck off then"
Finally I decided to give up on the whole idea. (Actually so grateful to Sam that she talked some sense into me)
I apologized to Matt for being a total dick and he was cool.
We made our way back to the ferry and Matt got a phone call regarding work on the island with accommodation, enough for 2 people. Everyone agreed that I should stay with Matt since I'd already started work. I'd never met Matt before, he was from New Orleans, wearing a jacket he'd cut the sleeves off of when the guy, Patrick met him at the ferry terminal for the work. Face palm moment. He still got the job, power washing the boats or something.
We arrived at the place Patrick was letting us have temporarily, told us he was trusting us and not to fuck him over because he was doing us a big Favor, told us to keep it clean etc.
Matt took the room and I took the sofa in the living room. Apartment was nice enough, small but practical. I took a selfie for Craig of me and Matt so he didn't think I was staying with an axe swinging maniac.
The days with Matt were great, he taught me how to budget and we cooked and shared cost on food. Every morning he would be as quiet as possible when he went out for work and closed the curtains so the morning sun didn't disturb me (so sweet) I thought it would be awkward with Matt but we shared story's of what our home was like and the culture etc. And it was just really nice to have our own place. We discussed what we would do after we lost this place, Patrick said we could only have this place for around 1 more week. The closest biggish city was Townsville (2 hours north) which Matt had stopped at on the way hitchhiking. So we thought about going there.
By the end of the week Tracy, my supervisor said I wasn't really keeping up and if I wanted to keep the job I'd have to quicken my pace. Well it made me feel totally shit. The following morning Matt went to work and I decided to use the islands computers to finish off my RSA (a course which is a legal requirement if you want to work in a bar or waitressing) i called Sam and she told me they were all heading to Bunderberg for farm work they spotted on gumtree (about 14
Hours south) I didn't know anything more than that but I had to go where they were going because I had no where to live after the week was over. The last ferry was due to leave in 2 hours. I ran 20 mins back to the apartment, packed, cleaned as much as I could and left a message for Matt along with all the change I had as I hadn't fully given Matt the money for rent.. I told him
To come Bundaburg and I tried a dozen times to phone him with no answer.
I just managed to get the ferry and walked around 20 mins with 1 heavy rucksack from a
the terminal to Airlie beach, a really nice man gave me a hand with my other rucksack and we slagged Hamilton island off all the way. Brilliant guy.
Sam said to meet her in nomads hostel. Dilemma. There were 2 nomads. I left my bag at the desk. My phone was dead and I rushed to use the computers across the road as I knew the coach for Bunderberg was leaving soon. I waited for Sam to respond... Nothing...
5 mins later Sam tells me where to meet her and they are all getting into a taxi to the bus stop. Adam quickly takes me to a place I can purchase the coach tickets and then we are away.
we waited more than 2 hours for the coach to arrive (it had broke down). That was 2 hours of waiting feeling bad on Matt and feeling so incredibly hungry with no shops around to get food. I sat next to
A guy from Taiwan and he told me all about his culture and we spoke about the difficulty of learning languages. I think I literally just sat to him and said "hey..." And it went from there. He's a backpacker, I'm a backpacker. We're all one of the same. Although wouldn't it be nice to go home and sit next to the craziest looking person (who probably isn't crazy and has some amazing story) and be like he's a human being I'm a human being. We're all one of the same and just be like "hey..." ?
I remember seeing a guy in Melbourne train station, similar age as I am sitting on the opposite side of the bench to me. We were the only ones at that stop and we were both just waiting... I wanted to say hi, he could have been a backpacker too and even if he wasn't, I should just been able to say hi to total strangers because (besides the fact that I needed reassurance that I was at the right stop) at home we meet new people through other friends or in a pub when We're drunk but wouldn't it just be nice to have met someone because you said "hi..." ?
I didn't say "hi" in the end. I don't think it's the social etiquette in a big city. So I left the stranger at the station a stranger.
It was the longest journey by coach yet but I think I managed to get a little bit of sleep. When we arrived it was early hours of the morning and a van of people came to pick us up. Someone got out and ushered us over. We approached the van and then a mini bus came and parked beside it. The van left. Strange. The guy in the mini bus said he works at 'bundy backpackers' the hostel we would be staying at.
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