I recently took a trip down to the central coast of Sydney to meet up with some pretty wonderful people from home for a wedding. After living a very simple life in the tiny town of Bingil Bay, tropical north Queensland for over a month, I was prepared for the hustle and bustle of the airport and big city life. After bumping into a few people and reminding myself multiple times to put shoes on when walking around in public, I arrived at the train station and headed towards the beautiful coastal town of Avoca Beach. Following a surreal reunion and a few “are you really here?!” moments, we did what all Canadian tourists do when they come to the land down unda… we went to play with crocs, koalas, and kangaroos at the Australian Reptile Park! This place had every type of Aussie animal you could imagine roaming around the grounds of the park. We made it just in time for the koala feeding, spotted a few crocs chilling out in the water, fed a cheeky little kangaroo who stuck his entire face in the food bag, and tapped on the glass cages of some of the worlds deadliest snakes and spiders. In the eight months I’ve been here I’ve yet to see any of these creepy creatures in the wild…hoping to keep it that way, but living in the Queensland tropics makes that a bit of a long shot.
 

The simplicity of being around friends from home who you haven’t seen in awhile means you can have fun just about anywhere, and we did! We spent our days hanging out on the coast, playing countless rounds of cards, stealing wifi from the local café down the road, and taking a day trip into Sydney to explore Manly Beach (in the rain, of course). Our Sydney adventure ended in the casino, where all good days end, with a few of us raking in some serious cash…sorry Matt, I know the other guy ruined it for you ;)
 

After a day of prepping and making the venue look absolutely stunning, the wedding day arrived and we were all excited to see the lovely Sean and Maria get hitched! The weather was perfect, the bar was open, and life was good. It was a beautiful day filled with love, laughter, and dancing. Thanks again for having me guys, it was such a blast!
 

While the central coast treated us well for the week, we were all ready for a change of pace and began planning our next destination. Being a travel agent I wanted to plan everything early…but when that didn’t work out we ended up scrolling through cheap flights and decided we would fly to the West Coast in the morning and start our next chapter in Perth, Western Australia! None of us had much of an idea what we were going to do when we got there but we had a campervan (well, sorta…) and the desire to explore – what more do you really need on a spontaneous road trip anyways? Following a bit of a flight mishap at the airport that almost stole half our team we all arrived in Perth and set off on the roadie in an old, inappropriately spray painted campervan that would be our home for the next five days. It wasn’t pretty but it took us all the way up to the Nambung National Park where we spent the late afternoon wandering the Pinnacles Desert and racing through sand dunes until just about sundown. Being on the west coast we were finally able to watch the sunset over the water and there was no better place to watch the magic happen than at Kangaroo Point beach. Secluded and serene, we wandered the beach until the sun had completely set for another day and set off on our drive to Rockingham where we would camp for the night. Superstar Bobby drove the whole way without hitting any kangaroos which is quite the feat in WA at night. We had a full day planned for tomorrow beginning with a wild dolphin swim thanks to the lovely crew at Rockingham Wild Encounters!
 

I’ve swam with dolphins a few times already on some family vacations in Mexico, but never wild dolphins. They are such gentle and playful creatures and one of my favourite animals so I was beyond excited to not only see them in their natural habitat but actually get to be in the water with them! After a few hours on the boat seeking them out and pointing every few minutes at waves that looked a little like fins, we finally found a small pod playing around and jumped at our chance to get in straight away. If there is an award for the best job in the world it would definitely go to the crew at Rockingham Wild. They get to play with these guys every single day! It was an experience I’ll never forget – floating in the ocean as the dolphins swam, twirled, and made their echolocation sounds underwater inches from touching us! What was even more impressive is we didn’t use a single bit of food as bait to lure them in, they were swimming with us because they wanted to not because they were forced to. It was one of the most special and awe inspiring moments of my travels so far. Once back on dry land we spent the rest of the day and evening exploring a few more beaches and coastal towns before setting up camp for the night beside Trigg Beach. You aren’t exactly supposed to camp beside the beaches in WA but how could we resist waking up to the sound of waves in our little campervan home!? Everything worked out for the best and we set off nice and early in the AM to catch our ferry across to the famous Rottnest Island!
 

After a quick jaunt across the ocean we arrived on Rottnest ready for a full day of bike riding, snorkeling, and Quokka spotting. Rottnest Island is probably one of the most beautifully unique places I have been to in Australia so far. It is covered in white sandy beaches, limestone cliffs, and stunning coastlines. The water is crystal clear and turquoise blue as far out as you can see. We had the chance to go snorkeling among a shipwreck where we even spotted a few jellyfish swimming about! Even when it started to pour rain on us it was still beautiful and we continued biking around the entire island until it was time to catch the ferry home. A definite highlight of our day was spending some time with the Quokkas that are native to Rottnest Island and are just the cutest little creatures always ready to pose for a smiley selfie! We couldn’t get enough of them.
 

Rottnest Island treated us very well, and before we knew it we were all asleep on the ferry back to Fremantle where the van was awaiting our arrival. Little did we know we were about to encounter a major change of plans less than 30 minutes later…driving to our next camp spot, we got seriously rear ended by a young driver who smashed the entire back windshield and boot – throwing our bags and belongings all over the hood of his car. A joyous moment indeed! In the pouring rain we exchanged details, said goodbye to our campervan home, and made our way to a hostel for the night where the lovely people at Billabong Backpackers in Perth thankfully took us in. It was nice to have a real bed to sleep in and a nice hot shower, but we did miss the van and the adventures it had taken us on. We got some sleep and woke up the next day ready to explore the city of Perth before half our group had to catch their flight back to Sydney.

Perth is a great little city full of culture, good food, and shopping! It was Halloween so there were a few festivities going on for that and we ate an incredible meal at the best Thai restaurant I had ever been to. After saying goodbye to Bobby and Katy, Matt and I set out for a Halloween night on the town dressed up as… Canadians! Which involved throwing on a pair of shorts and a plaid –I’m sure no one understood what we were but it was all we had! Watching the grand final game between the All Blacks and the Wallabies at a little Irish pub made for one of the best Halloween’s i’ve ever had – even though Australia did lose… you’ll get ‘em next time boys!

Our last day was bittersweet – after such a big adventure you always want more time to do more and see more. WA is such an incredible part of Australia and we only saw a tiny bit of it. We spent the last few hours wandering around the port town of Fremantle, getting reflexology massages, taste testing all the beers at the famous Little Creatures Brewery, and finishing off the day with the BEST reunion seeing my favourite person and roomie ever – SAM CLARKE for dinner on the harbour. All too soon it was time to head to the airport where our adventure would come to a close.

I don’t think we could have asked for a better journey all the way from the tiny town of Avoca Beach to the city of Perth and it’s perfect white sandy beaches. Even the car accident couldn’t bring us down! I’ll definitely be returning to WA as soon as I can – it is one of those places you can’t get enough of and I miss it dearly. After saying our goodbyes and being last to board the plane once again it was time for this chick to head back to Queensland – trading one slice of paradise for another. Bingil Bay welcomed me back like I had never left, and as I sit at the one café in town writing this post I look around and realize how perfectly sweet it is to just do nothing but reflect on all the good in life and how much I love what I do. Sharing this beautiful country with friends just made it even more perfect! I truly could not ask for anything more.
 

Stay tuned for the next adventure…it’s just around the corner!