Its a Rocky Road

The last blog saw us bobbing around on the duck pond biding our time.  I was heading into the Lodge to clean a few times a week until one afternoon when the boss called asking if I could look after Yongala for the next 4 days as she needed to shoot down to Brisbane, that would be absolutely no problem and the next day saw us grabbing what stuff we would need and heading in.  Upon arriving the boss said that this would be the last time she would need me as the place had been sold.  Over the next few days Craig and I chatted about our future and what we wanted to achieve.  I had set a goal that when we arrived in Australia I wanted a certain amount in the bank before we left and due to one thing or another we were no where near that goal so that really meant we had to stay on, for now in Australia.  We then enjoyed the following few days knowing these were our last at the Yongala while at the same time updating our cv’s for the upcoming job search.

Wednesday afternoon she came back, we grabbed all our stuff and headed away.  Thursday morning we got up really early (trying to beat the heat) and took the dinghy into the marina so we could use their wifi and look for potential jobs.  We saw 3 couples wanted to manage motel positions, 1 in Rockhampton and 2 in Cairns.  We sent away our applications and headed back out to the boat.  It would have been no more than 3 hours later my phone rang, it was the owner of the motel in Rockhampton wanting to know when we could be available for an interview.  He lived in Sydney and could get to Rocky on Sunday which worked well for us.  That Saturday saw us picking up a rental from the Townsville Airport and driving 9 hours down to Rocky.  Hector (the owner) had made the offer for us to stay however we preferred to meet him on our terms for the interview (rather than looking bedraggled after 9 hours driving) so we had booked a cheap room at another hotel.  I should have looked closer when I made the booking as I didn’t notice at the time but the motel I booked ended up being right next door to The Tropical Gateway – oops.

The next morning saw us in our interview clothes (having done a quick op shop run and purchasing 2 complete outfits for a total of $35 – winning!).
                     

We drove (yeap next door) and had our interview.  We felt really good afterwards and proceeded to jump in the car and drive up to Mackay as we decided driving the entire 9 hours again was too much, we got back home on Monday.  On Thursday we got the phone call – the job was ours, when could we start?  We had pre-organised a trip up to Cairns for that weekend so agreed that we would do the big drive down on the following Tuesday ready to start work on Wednesday.

The next morning saw us heading to Townsville Airport again to pick up another rental, this time driving up north to catch up with some good friends Craig and Sue.

We had a fabulous few days relaxing at theirs as well as heading up to Port Douglas for a night so Sue could try out some camping gear she had purchased.  The camping didn’t turn out to be entirely successful however a few lessons were learnt for the next time (for Sue that is, we don’t intend to camp ever again LOL).

We drove back to Townsville on Monday arriving just after lunch which left us the afternoon to pack and clean.  Tuesday morning saw us (yeap once again) heading back to the Townsville Airport for the very last time, this time to swap over the current rental we had kept from Budget for one from Hertz.  We looked at keeping the budget car but the one way trip to Rocky was going to cost $300 while Hertz had a car they wanted taking down and that was $50 – easy decision.

Another big day of driving and we made it to our new home for at least the next year.

We are both employed and share the management role at the Tropical Gateway Motel.  The place is dated and definitely needs a lot of work done to it which we found out was the main reason we got the job.  During the interview while we were walking around the place we both shared ideas of what we would do to improve the place and apparently Hector was really impressed with both our ideas and our energy. 

We have been here 6 days and already have a routine sorted.  I do the majority of the day to day work from setting up the continental breakfast, running the office and looking after the cleaning staff (am so happy I don’t have to clean the rooms).  Craig is doing the renovating of the rooms and being that there is 28 of them it will take him quite a few months.

Hector had flown in from Sydney for the first couple of days we were here and all together we came up with ideas on how to renovate smartly and cost efficiently.  While it will definitely be keeping us busy it is quite nice being able to put our own stamp on the place, especially if the numbers start to grow.  We have a bonus structure in place on top of our salary which means as the occupancy starts to increase so does our $$, now that is a great incentive!

With the job being 24/7 we will have little opportunity to get away however we do have a couple of mini individual breaks that we are looking forward to.  Over xmas/new years a couple of my besties are coming to visit from NZ and Craig will run the place by himself so I can get away for a few days with them.  Then in January I will run the place while he heads back to Townsville in order to sail REAO down.  We are currently applying for membership to the Rockhampton Boat Club which will enable us to moor on the river right in the centre of town and use their facilities to tie up our dinghy.  While REAO is in Townsville we have a couple of people keeping an eye on her for us which is absolutely fantastic.

So that is us for now, a new adventure in a new town.  Working here will enable future us to  spend a few years sailing around the islands and Indonesia without any $$ concerns.  It is all part and parcel of this amazing journey that makes up our adventurous life.