Quick Decisions & New Adventures

We were offered positions at a working hostel in Mildura called Oasis Backpackers. On Friday morning, we had checked out of our hostel Coffee Palace and were going to book a night bus to Mildura until I got talking to one of the guys who worked in the hostel.

He said they used to send backpackers to Oasis 4 years previous but hadn’t worked with them since, due to horrendous reviews. They were known for treating their workers as ‘just a number’ to them and were more interested in filling their hostel beds than finding people work.

Instead, he recommended a place in Merbein which was 10 minutes outside Mildura, who they had been sending people to for the past year and always had great success. It was Larry’s Hostel called One Big Family. After a very quick decision and a phone call to Larry, we booked our over-night bus. Tara decided to stay in Melbourne with Grace and continue finding work, but she knows she has the option of coming up to Merbein if it isn’t working out.

That day we treated ourselves to a huge lunch at Elephant & Wheelbarrow, chicken parma’s and pies, to celebrate our new adventure. Followed by some sunbathing in the Park, just off Fitzroy Street. For the rest of the day we watched TV (including Coronation Street and Eastenders,woohooo) in the TV room at Coffee Palace.

At 9.30pm we boarded the night bus, for a journey to Mildura Bus Station where Larry would pick us up. There was a Samoan Rugby Team on the bus who would not shut up. The driver at one stage yelled, “whoever is playing the music, can shut it off, or walk”!

We waited for Larry at the bus stop at 6.30am, excited and very nervous about our new adventure. He was so nice and welcoming. He drove us to this huge hotel in Merbein, which looked like a throwback from the 80s. It had a big kitchen, 2 dining rooms, living room with a huge TV in the living room, multiple shower and bathrooms, a big balcony to hang out on and a huge back garden with a canopy and seating area. There is also a pub next door, a supermarket 2 minutes away, a really nice swimming pool 5 minutes away, a charity shop round the corner (where we bought all of our work clothes, Runners for $2!!!). It’s perfect. We headed for a nap in our rooms and woke up to meet all the residents. There were 4 Irish girls, 2 Italian guys, 2 German guys, 2 German girls, 1 New Zealand girl and 2 English guys, everyone was so nice, like one big family.

 

On night one, we had a huge FREE BBQ and a few drinks but we didn’t go too mental, as Larry had set us up with our first FARMING WORK the next day. BOOOOOM work and MONEY!!!!