We just arrived back home late last night from our adventure Down Under and it’s wonderful to have this holiday weekend providing today as a day of integration, rest, and reverence for all. It was a fantastic trip in every way and was more than either of us imagined it would be. This created both a bitter and sweet farewell, for now, as our hearts were sad to go, but also love our present home in Tahoe and the many new things we have set in motion to return to. Like with all things it’s about trusting and embracing the next part of the journey and where it leads, as that’s how we continue to move forward and receive the most out of our experience of life, rather than grip tightly to it. I’m grateful to have more within me to bring along the journey because of the adventures we’ve said yes to and grateful also for the soul retrieval integrated in Australia. This adventure has been both inspiring and invigorating for sure!

When last I left off we’d just arrived in Byron Bay and enjoyed our first immersion at the sacred Aboriginal site of Ti Tree Lake. Our next two days were full of the beauty and high vibes of Byron Bay’s beautiful beaches, nature, views, amazing vegan food finds, gorgeous and potent sunsets – one filled with orbs – powerful activations and initiations at the Crystal Castle (with light beams and energies galore showing up in the photos), and New Moon celebrations.

It was amazing that I traveled to Australia on a Full Moon and we were there for the New Moon as well. Felt like a perfect cycle to experience there and support for intentions in our lives. I also loved how things aligned with what we were doing on these days, without planning. So yes, being amongst giant crystal guardians for the New Moon energy was indeed no accident.

I will do a separate post to share a bunch of photos from the Crystal Castle, so you can get a feel for it. Definitely a must experience in my opinion.

After we reluctantly said goodbye to Byron Bay, we then had two days in Brisbane, but along the 2 hour drive we stopped on the Gold Coast in Mermaid Beach so Dave could do an in-person radio interview on ABC Radio combined with a local lamb farmer to discuss the economics of meat production.

That just happened to align perfectly, as he’d just received a call for the interview two days before and we just happened to be passing through on our way.

Then of course I had to step foot on Mermaid Beach…a Pisces MerFaery needs to anchor her fins and feet officially. Hehe! We enjoyed lunch we picked up for a picnic on the beach before continuing on to Brisbane.

And then we had a lovely time exploring the best the city had to offer, being gifted a free guided tour of Brisbane by our gracious Airbnb hosts, Ken and Vicki, who wanted to help us see as much as possible.

We couldn’t decline their sweet offer and were so grateful for all they did for us above and beyond in accommodating and making us feel at home. The tour ended up being 3 hours including walking, free bus, and City Hopper Ferry, which allowed us to experience the best of things and the total experience. So wonderful the city has these free services.

And then a little donut adventure happened….had to happen some time, if you know Dave’s love for these and his being a magnet for them everywhere he goes. He’d already enjoyed a bunch of vegan donuts before I arrived to Australia, but now he got to share the love. Dave showed us his vegan donut skills by diverting us momentarily to stock up on a half dozen specialty, super-sized donuts. We gave some to our hosts to try. Many giggles were had over this.

The tour was better than any tour we could have paid for and our hosts were incredibly sweet, stocking their beautiful place with vegan toiletries and food just for us. They asked us our dietary needs before arrival sending us tons of helpful info, and even though we said we’d be fine we found a home away from home awaiting us. They also put fresh roses in the place from their home that filled the place with sweet aroma, and stocked tons of fruit and fresh watermelon, supplied picnic basket, soy milk, breakfast items and more and made sure there wasn’t anything non vegan…all just out of consideration. 

After getting the lay of the land with them, we set off walking the streets and exploring the restaurants to find some yummy dinner and the next day we immersed fully in the culture and beauty of the city visiting the Roma Street Parkland gardens with a free tour there as well, got to see the amazing Water Dragons (dragons on this last day were a big theme showing up a lot), tons of other birds, brush turkey, ibis….

The Wanderlust event just happened to be going on on the event grounds connected to the gardens so we got to soak in the high vibes that were just getting kicked into gear as we explored. This is a triathlon event of yoga, meditation, and 5k, with lots going on and unity energy being blasted out. We stopped to breathe it all in with them.

Then we explored the Brisbane Clock Tower at City Hall and Brisbane Museum of History. On our way to walk to lunch we then synchronously ran into Anonymous for the Voiceless, which is an animal rights organization specializing in direct street action. We stopped to chat – they seemed excited to meet us, especially Dave – and their photographer wanted photos they’ll post later to their Facebook page. This is one we got.

And off we went to another fabulous lunch (for all the amazing vegan food finds and photos, please visit my Instagram or Facebook page, as I’ve shared tons of details on this and more from the adventure there), and then went to the GOMA – Gallery of Modern Art, which is one of the most highly regarded in the world and had incredible art installations, took a 12 minute ride on the Wheel of Brisbane (giant ferris wheel), sat in the Nepalese Peace Pagoda to absorb the harmonious serenity there, and then finished things off with another free ride up and down the Brisbane River on the City Hopper Ferry before taking a rest and enjoying our last yummy meal at a fun night spot in the city.

That rounded out the end of our adventures before we had a full day of travel to return back home. Our flight between LA and Reno had a huge layover of about 12 hours, so we even had the chance to visit Dave’s family for the day when we got back, which was really nice not only to see them, but we got to take in a two hour nap, showers, a lovely lunch, and enjoy their oasis garden to ease back into the energy of the U.S.A., as well as meet the new member of their family….a 3 year old, rescued Greyhound named Judy. They already have another Greyhound named Tammy that’s 12 years old and Harley, they’re young rescued Coonhound. I so love and resonate with Greyhounds and am grateful to them for learning so much about them and being able to experience them firsthand, as they resonate the most of any dog with me – reminding me much of the sensitive and intuitive disposition of rabbits, ironically, since live rabbits are used to race them.

But back to our trip – it was just fabulous all around and the highlights for me were definitely the animal connections (love, love, LOVE them all especially the koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, and incredible birds), gorgeous coastline, nature’s beauty, the energy, the warmth of the people, the amazing vegan food,and of course getting to meet my family. Synchronicities and magick were around every corner and everything just flowed beautifully. There was a sense of ease and gentleness, as well as a relaxed energy of presence and the moment everywhere we went. There is a huge – at least to us – and noticeable difference in the people and ways in Australia, which is such a warm welcome. The people are all so incredibly nice and helpful, the cities are so clean and without graffiti, we noticed a sense of trust that doesn’t happen here in the States and greater sense of well being in mind for all, and presence. We noticed immediately upon arrival to LA the contrast in our people interactions.

The cities in Australia were very cool, fun, and with tons to do and everything very convenient, but it was the smaller oceanside, sleepy and quieter towns that really felt like home.

My favorites were Byron Bay, Tathra and the Eden area, and Port Macquarie –  likely in that order.

My favorite and most memorable experiences, overall, were visiting the Koala Hospital and the Crystal Castle, as well as walking Lemon Tree Passage with all the tropical birds swarming around and the koalas in the trees to find.

Of course meeting my family was heart enriching and is it’s own special thing outside of it all. Since that I’ve been nearly daily in touch with my 3rd cousin since. And good news! My parents have booked their trip in October to Melbourne (just happened a few days ago) to visit our family there and explore that area. All of this put into motion with my being there as the bridge…so that’s a wonderful gift we all get to share.

In terms of a balance with nature and city, we loved Bondi Beach as our fav.

And of course the cities – Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane were incredibly rich with a different kind of vibe and experiences with one of the highlights being the symphony at the Sydney Opera House that we got to go to, which is a fav memory. And the food…oh the food!!

We didn’t even scratch the surface of what you can experience in this incredible land, but did get a good lay of the land and feel for things, with the best of the time and worlds we were in. We traveled about 1300 miles over the course of 2 and a half weeks, which I drove mostly to give Dave a break after his whirlwind tour the 2 weeks previously traveling to the 7 capital cities. I enjoyed driving on the opposite side of the road, having it feel natural actually, likely because my brain works bilaterally and I do things backwards always anyway. But it became second nature so much so that driving home yesterday was what started feeling foreign. LOL! It’s all balanced out though.

We fell in love with Australia for sure and felt deeply connected there, so much so that we could see ourselves living there as well as the other places we’ve rooted our energies in, and can potentially see a future of us having a home there when that presents itself in aligned timing along the journey. But we do know the city that called to our Bohemian hearts and I feel, like with the other heart homes we’ve discovered on the Magick Bus adventure, that we’ve anchored in these places with our presence and energy there for things to light up when the time is right. What has been important is making those connections literally and in all ways, so that our essence signature is at one with the lands we feel called to and then the rest will unfold in divine timing.

Also, I do know why I hadn’t finished that last part of my book before going (if you recall I completed it all except the end), as I was definitely right about the last energies to put it to closure were needed to retrieve and experience in Australia. So many signs and messages came through on this journey, including very specific tie-ins to the story I’ve been writing that showed up literally, messages from Cosmo (which continued up until the last day before leaving), inspiration for the final pages, and even a dream of the new bunny love coming to me soon connected with things I loved in Australia, as well as messages and alignment to support the bigger dreams I’m working toward.

So perfect in all ways.

As I sit here writing this, overlooking the portal of beautiful Lake Tahoe, I can feel the connection via it to Australia and to every doorway of experience I/we am/are opening and about to enter.

I love Australia and am grateful for being embraced by the energies there and the welcome extended beyond just this adventure we’ve returned from. I also love the continued surprises that keep being revealed, the more we embrace saying yes and remain open to the highest good evolving that takes our hopes and dreams to a new level without limitations to what that needs to look like.

Anything and everything is possible and what appears to “be” right now, constantly shifts into what is most nurturing and aligned for the next now moment, as long as we remain open, flexible, and detached from any fixed definition of experience.