Brisbane

On my birthday last October, my lovely friend Aroha sent me a message saying: “For your birthday, I want you to come to Australia with me! You will have places to stay, you just have to book your flight!” and to be honest, I waffled a bit. Because of the sabbatical I had taken last year + having my camera stolen, I wasn’t sure if it was in the cards for me though I desperately wanted to go. It was a conversation with my husband when he said “Will you regret not going?” to which I responded “Yes. I think I will.” My words for 2024, if you recall, are TRUST & EXPLORE and saying yes to this Australian adventure required me to do both. I am going to split it into 2 parts, as part 1 occurred on the East coast starting in Brisbane and zipping up the coast with my pals and then part 2 took part in Perth on the West coast where I stripped naked in the middle of the city so I could be photographed! For now, let’s start with the East coast hahaha!

My buddy Kristina met myself and Aroha at the airport (Aroha had flown in from New Zealand) and we headed up the sunshine coast, stopping at varying towns along the way. I don’t even remember all of the places we stopped at or stayed the night in, but I do know that there were tons of laughs, a few tears, and some beautiful landscapes. Despite it being called The Sunshine Coast, it rained almost the entire time I was there which I had commemorated on my tatTOUR arm with a little raincloud featuring 3 raindrops (representing each of us!) After 4 days on the road, we arrived at Kristina’s hometown where we split ways - Aroha going to spend time with her friend Tracey and Kristina and I staying at her home. Kristina took me on a wee little walk up a hill to some incredible sand dunes where we enjoyed a lovely picnic and sharing of our life stories. It was a magical sunset and quite the hike back up through the sand, but it was memorable to say the least. After 3 days, Kristina and I drove up to Tracey’s house to pick up her and Aroha to embark on a barge to K’gari Island (also known as Fraser Island). It was waiting for them to get ready that I finally saw a kangaroo in the wild, just jumping through the streets. We would then spend the next 3 days in a cute little cabin/treehouse exploring the forest and then taking a day trip in a 4x4 to go driving on the sand roads to see the island. This was probably the most adventurous, but with Kristina at the wheel we were totally fine! We saw an absolutely beautiful blue, clear lake which we were able to walk across so I precariously took my camera to the other side to capture a few nature images sans humans. At one point, I ended up getting naked in the ferns for Aroha to photograph me which caused us to laugh as I laid face first in the dirt as a tour bus drove by! All in all, the East coast of Australia is absolutely glorious and I can see why they have names like Surfer’s Paradise, Sunshine Coast, and other various beautiful monikers. 10/10 recommend renting a car (or having your friends drive you!) up and down the coast!