Housing Problems Down Under

31 August: The last day of August and our homestay host abandoned us to a sports tournament in Dunedin (pronounced done-EE-din). We didn't mind. Pretty much since we got here, our one goal has been to find affordable and adequate housing. Little did we know, those two things don't go hand-in-hand. The earthquake devastated the city in February 2011 and housing is at a premium. Sunday, though, was our day off. Our host hung around until around 3:00 as we searched online for places for rent. I've also been working every day on writing my book, Santa Cruz Trains: Railroads of the Santa Cruz Mountains. It hasn't been an entirely fun endeavor since we have so little free time, so Sunday was a good day to start since nothing was planned. Still, despite a full free day, we hardly got to watch TV or relax. Business as usual.

This is the History building at University of Christchurch. Kinda concrete blocky but its nice enough inside.

1 September: On Monday, I finally got to meet my PhD supervisor, Dr. Chris Jones. He is a remarkably nice Welsh man who has lived in Christchurch for nine years. I'm apparently his seventh postgraduate student he's supervising, which puts him quite a bit over the limit, but he doesn't seem to mind much. We met and went down to the "Shillings Club", a ritzy bar and restaurant on campus mostly patronized by lecturers and professors. There is a reason for that: the cheapest meal on the menu is around $22 (roughly $19 US). Did I say things are expensive in New Zealand? Still, he gave me my first assignment: write a topic question that you will be answering for your thesis. Now those not familiar with the British system may find this assignment a bit strange. In the US, thesis statements are defended, but in the UK system (and, by extension, the NZ), topic questions are answered, though a thesis is still required in the actual essay. I got used to it back in Swansea over the years, but it still was a bit of a shock that even 100,000 word thesis papers have these rather crude topic questions. But I digress... Kara and I also got the keycode pin for access to our very own office cubical-type things. Okay, they're desks separated by cubical walls, but close enough. We have access to other rooms in the Locke building (the one in the picture at right), as well, though they aren't nearly as interesting.

Chris and I chatted for two hours and then Kara and I went to the local real estate office to inquire about renting. Once again we were let down. The demand is so high that realtors aren't really working with renters. They simply don't have to. Thus our housing search continued.

On a more positive note, the homestay host's
cat, Ambrose, has befriended us since she left,
even sneaking into our room one night to
make noise. He follows us around, meowing,
all the time, but he also purrs incessantly.

2 September: Tuesday ushered in a whole new day of housing disappointment, mostly while Kara met with her advisor. The Accommodations Department person that met with me was quite nice but not overly sympathetic or helpful. Apparently if you have a cat, they aren't willing to help you. Go figure. Honestly, bringing Niko along was a precondition for coming to New Zealand, but we are suffering for it both financially and housing-wise. The rest of Tuesday went relatively smoothly with even a little time to ourselves.

3 September: Ah, apartment viewing day. If you really want to get disappointed, try getting your hopes up first, walking three miles, and then being entirely let down. Then, on top of that, you have to walk all the way back those three miles depressed. Yeah, we did that twice on Wednesday. It was a 10-mile day, give or take a mile. On the plus side, I'm already losing the calories (or should I say kilojules) that I gained in Arizona. Pretty soon, I'll be onto my post-Tech Museum excess weight and back down to a manageable level.

To be honest, though, Wednesday really showed us what we're up against. Somebody last week told us that we can either set our demands and wait for them to be fulfilled or settle for less. The first apartment we visited was in the slightly seedier side of west Christchurch. It had rather sad qualities to it including a crappy oven, small refrigerator, minimal counter space in the kitchen, old washing machine, small bedrooms, unkempt garden, and single-panned windows. They were repainting the house, but they really should have been rebuilding it. The kitchen was down a hallway from the living room and that was the only room that was truly livable in the house. It looked too close to our place in Swansea for comfort, so we walked out.

At last, Hokey-Pokey is an ice cream flavor! We finally
know what it's all about. That's a load off my mind.

After a trip to the university on the way back to pick up some books, we ventured to our second apartment viewing to be equally unenthused. Though in a nice neighborhood, the interior of the house was perhaps the strangest layout we've ever seen. You know the term "bathroom"? Yeah, it's literal here. "Toilet"? Yup, that's its own room as well. No sink either. Oh, and just in case you want to take a shower, that's in another room, which it shares with the ancient washing machine. In the kitchen, a crappy oven sits beside what can only be described as a beer fridge serving as the main fridge. No freezer in sight. It did include a dishwasher, but at the expense of counter and cabinet space since it stuck out nearly 8 inches, blocking access to both. Once again, the owner was painting rather than remodeling. It seems to be an unfortunate trend here. But in this case, the painting was haphazard and poorly implemented since mold was collecting on high windowsills and most other windows were surrounded by old  crackling paint that was not on the agenda to repaint. Again, we were unimpressed and severely disappointed since the description for this place made it sound so reasonable.

On the plus side, we finally were able to watch TV after returning from our long, sad trek back. Always a silver lining...even around sharknadoes.