An amazing example of how you should never tempt fate and just keep your mouth shut occurred sometime in August. On one of those rare occasions when everyone in the flat was together, in this instance, playing Texas Holdem Poker, someone asked if the rent has been increased at any time during the 13 months Lucie and I had been there. We looked at each other and replied “not once” with joyful realisation. The next day we received a letter from our agency notifying that the rent would be increased by an astronomical $80 / week in 2 months.
I sent a half-hearted letter to the agency requesting that the landlord reconsider, but in truth, we had been looking for a good reason to move out. The problem had always been that it was just too good staying where we were. The apartment was a spacious, top floor, luxurious apartment in the city centre, and living with 4 other people meant the bills were cheap and so was the rent. But, on the flip side of that, it was hard to relax, we were living in other people’s mess, and it was rarely quiet. We needed our own space, and as we’d no longer be able to think about the money we’d be saving, we knew it was time to move on. This represented a significant development in our settling into New Zealand. The shared accommodation served a clear purpose. It allowed us to save lots of money for further travel, but with flatmates constantly coming and going, and having no time or space to properly relax, we had remained in a state of being where our backpacks were always mentally half packed.
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