We will walk 500 miles...

We've been in Lonnie (as Launceston is affectionally known by the locals) for a week now. And it feels like most of that week has been spent walking...and walking some more!

Monday, our first day in the big smoke, was spent walking round all the real estate agents we could find. We were hoping for a 2 bedroom fully furnished place in a certain budget. All the ones we had seen listed on the internet had gone by the time we got here. One agent showed us a brand new one, right in town but a little out of our planned budget, so we started looking at un-furnished options. We thought we might get a place for cheaper then spend the rest of our budget on renting or buying furniture. Unfortunately most of the unfurnished places had gone too - everyone doing the same as us! The few unfurnished places available were more expensive than we had hoped, and by the time we started costing furniture etc we were going to be paying the same as the fully furnished place we looked at, but have less furniture and furnishings. So We put an application in for the fully furnished place.

And then we had to wait, as Tuesday was Australia Day, so nothing was happening. In fact being a public holiday in a small town meant that there weren't even that many cafes etc open for us to eat at. It seems that every time a meal time came around we would walk every street of the CBD looking for a cheap cafe to eat at. We now have a few favourites that we stick to!

Being Aussie Day we decided to do some more exploring - this involved more walking! We walked up Cataract Gorge to the First Basin Reserve.

This area is quite a scenic spot with lots of different walks in the reserve. At the First Basin there is a lake as well as a swimming pool, a couple of cafes and a cable car that goes from one side of the gorge to the other.

Wednesday I had a days work - managed to pick up a day of nannying for our potential landlords, which was a bonus. So while I worked, Ollie went out to explore the Uni and the buses to and from. We also found out that our application for the apartment had been accepted...however its totally new, and they wont have finished furnishing it until Feb 6th. An extra week in the back packers, it was going to be :(

Friday, Ollie had his orientation day. Course starts with two weeks of Maths, and discovered his first exam is a week away! It will be a full on year for him.

We also got a call from the real estate agent, offering to put us into another apartment for a week until our one was ready. We gladly accepted this offer -  knowing the study Ollie was going to be doing, having some space of our own was a relief.

So Ollie's last relaxing weekend before he hits the books, was spent shifting into the temporary apartment and walking some more...there were rumours of a place selling cupcakes a few blocks out of town, so we had to walk there, and the Esk market needed to be explored.

Now for Ollie to start studying and me to start job hunting!