WE FOUND AN APARTMENT!
I have been waiting to post until I have good news…
I didn’t realize I was going to have to wait this long!!!
There is SO much to catch up on and now that I feel like the wait is over I have a lot of posts coming up! I still haven’t written about Fraser Island! It was 100% the best thing we’ve done in Australia so far and I can’t wait to do a post all about it. My Fraser Island video has been ready and waiting to get posted for weeks now but the internet is such CRAP everywhere I’ve been recently that there hasn’t been enough bandwidth to upload it. But it’s worth the wait! And I have been planning a “backpacking foods” post, like what we eat/buy in a week, because that’s been a creative challenge. I also have a video coming of the Noosa “Fairy Pools” that Lewis and I went to last weekend where we try to vlog a little bit more.
But first the good news! And how we got there…
WE OFFICIALLY HAVE AN APARTMENT!!!!! IN NOOSA!!!
Our new backyard!!
It took since October 20th to get to this point. We saw 7 places, got (brutally) rejected from 3, saw some really terrible places, until finally getting this one. I knew finding a place to live would likely be one of the most difficult parts of this entire year but even knowing that I think we were naive in just how hard it actually would be. It was like the second they heard our American and English accents, saw that we were young, unmarried and didn’t have renting history in Australia or huge incomes they basically wanted us out of their lives immediately. Some were actually incredibly rude about it. It sucked. Especially knowing the rest of our tour group were still on the tour this entire time, continuing on that great and carefree trip without us we had major FOMO.
Noosa came as a recommendation from a few different friends who had spent a lot of time in Australia before. Lewis and I came to Australia for an escape. We wanted to feel like we were on vacation for a year. Like we were experiencing a lifestyle that wouldn’t have been possible to achieve anywhere but in Australia. Sydney was nice but I felt like we didn’t need to go so far from home to live in a beautiful harbor front city– both our home cities of Boston and London would’ve fit the bill for that.
Noosa, however, was exactly what we had pictured.
It’s completely stunning here. The main street in Noosa Heads, Hastings Street, is an upscale shopping street lined with outdoor cafes, independent boutiques and the occasional surf shop. Hastings Street runs parallel with the coast so ride on the other side of the shops is Main Beach with it’s stretch of beautiful crystal clear blue-teal ocean. The beach is sort of a bay and it curves around to the side to create Noosa National Park which I think is the area’s best feature. There are loads of walks that we haven’t even explored yet because we are so into the Coastal Walk which follows the curve of the coast with amazing views and private, secluded beaches with flat, crystal clear water, OMG it’s so nice.
Noosa’s ‘Fairy Pools’ at the national park.
The area definitely caters to retirees and vacationing families. Kind of like Sanibel or Captiva Island in Florida. Also kind of like a tropical Chatham, MA. There’s not a lot of nightlife, like, at all. But the nature and outdoor things to do here make up for that. There’s three main smaller towns that make up the whole of Noosa–Noosa Heads, Noosaville, and Tewantin–and a bus route connects them all pretty seamlessly. Our place is on the border of Noosaville and Tewantin.
After all of our friends left to continue on with the tour, we moved out of the hostel we had been staying at, Noosa Nomads, and into an Airbnb (Glen & Michael’s if you want to follow along with the Where We’ve Stayed post). The Airbnb kind of sucked but we met a guy around our age named Zach who was from Brisbane. He was cool and we got to spend some time with him and his girlfriend which was a nice surprise. After the Airbnb we moved to Noosa Lakes Resort promising that if we didn’t have a place worked out by 3 night we would move on. Three nights turned into six nights which turned into 9 night which turned into….12…. and then we found a unit for rent within the resort!
It’s a 2nd floor 2 bedroom apartment. 2 balconies, overlooking the lake, 3 swimming pools, giant tv, washer and dryer, dishwasher, full kitchen, big living space!
The lake outside our balcony.
It’s awesome. Just waiting to get the go-ahead to move in. The literal ONLY way we managed to get this place was by promising to pay the full 6 months rent upfront, in cash, upon moving in. I honestly believe we would never have been able to find a place if we hadn’t done that. It sucks to spend that much money right now, especially since after paying for the East Coast tour and hotel living for the last three weeks I will literally be down to less than a grand–total– after this rent gets paid. BUT we are sorted for the next six months, and we still have 16 days left of our East Coast tour to use at any time. As soon as we move in the job search begins.
Oh I forgot to mention that, I did have a job here for a short period during the last three weeks. It was at a fancy restaurant and I quit after two shifts because it was terrible and the manager kept calling girls “slugs” for moving too slowly– no.
Stay tuned for photos and videos of the new place and I will be back on a more regular posting routine!!
#featured #queensland #workingholiday #oz #BACKPACKING #flats #firstapartment #noosalakesresort #sunshinecoast #update #AUSTRALIA #noosa #apartmenthunting