Goodbye Aus, Welcome hOMe!

Written March 1st, 2014 from Vernon, B.C.

The Final Aussie Email!!! That’s it folks, that’s the truth.  Marina here to talk in your head about our final month in the land down under…

So Orion left off pre Christmas (yes I know we are a little behind…) with the van back in running order and visiting our beautiful friends, Anna, Justin, and baby Jade, possibly the most awesome kid ever.  We were SO happy to relax and refresh ourselves with Anna’s family after the insane amount of stress we had just pulled ourselves through.  We also managed to get a bit of dread work done between Anna and her friend Holly, with the longest dreads I have EVER seen!

So we wanted to hit the ocean before Christmas, and somehow we managed to do it.  Overcoming our doubts about the van, and any fears of it breaking down again (even though we KNEW that it wouldn’t), we hit the road once again for Sydney!  The big scary city of Sydney!  Thrilling…

We had a completely uneventful drive, did some more dreads, and promptly left the city again.  Who wants to spend Christmas in a big old dirty city with no friends, family or a place to stay?? We headed north to the beach!  I chose the beach straight from a map, precisely by it’s name: Whale Beach.  Perfect!

Well, after months of travelling through the deserted desert lands of Australia, we were rather overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people.. Everywhere!  There was no such thing as a empty quiet beach here in this sprawl of population!  I won’t lie that we were disappointed when we arrived at our chosen destination, to find it was surrounded by neighbourhoods and there was only pay parking at the beach.  

But our Christmas plans would not be thwarted!  We had discovered a loop hole.  There was a small gap between the Pay Parking sign, and the No Parking sign outside the parking lot.  And the gap was juussttt big enough for A VAN!  So we did just that.  And it worked.  With our rebellious parking spot, we curled up nice and cozy and fell asleep on Christmas Eve to the sounds of the ocean exactly how we had imagined.  It was hard to think where we had been just a few days earlier, and what we had been through to get us where we were!  A sense of accomplishment indeed.

The next morning we had a small but memorable present exchange in the front seats of the van, and after were pleasantly surprised to see a little restaurant on the ocean opening up for Christmas breakfast.  We had a delicious feast of french toast (with our own supply of Canadian Maple Syrup of course!) and delicious Aussie coffee sitting under an umbrella on the ocean.  Despite the craziness leading up to this day, and the lack of planning, it really became the perfect day.

The one unfortunate thing was that it was a rainy day, not the perfect day for surfing, though the waves were good.  But Orion, in all his dedication, hauled himself out to the stormy seas anyway.  I figured an Aussie Christmas just wouldn’t be complete without going in the ocean, so I too went for a swim.  Despite the rough seas, the water felt surprisingly warm, and we drifted around in the waves for quite some time…

So that about sums up our Christmas.  Nothing special, but something very special at the same time. :)  

We had big plans to reach Byron Bay for New Years Eve.  Byron Bay, the famed music, hippie, surf town.  Unfortunately highly regarded by MANY other people in nearby cities, and also the perfect place for all those people to spend their New Years…

We made it a half a day, camped peacefully in the bush, and then a few hours the next morning before the highway got backed up.  Yepp.  A four lane highway, our half of the road bumper to bumper cars and campers, either parked or just crawling forward slower than a walking pace.

Luckily our mindset was right… Nowhere to be, no one to see, no plans, no deadlines, no commitments.  We just sat back, cranked some tunes and enjoyed the beautiful day and the sound of the cicadas in the trees beside us.

Eventually we rolled into Byron Bay after a seriously long day of driving.  I had heard so many amazing things about this place and had it build up in my mind as this ideal hippie ocean surfing town.  However, every single person from Sydney AND Melbourne combined (or so it felt like) also had that idea and all wanted to come there over Christmas and New Years.  So unfortunately for us, though we could SENSE that the amazing vibe we heard about was here, we didn’t to experience all that much because the poor little town was completely full to bursting with trendy, drunk, loud, city holidayers.  

Despite all that, we did manage to find a way to love Byron Bay.  Orion dove headfirst into the surfer’s life, and spent at least three or four hours every day surfing.  If the waves weren’t good at one beach, we’d drive over to the next bay and he’d ride those ones.  I wasn’t surfing, but anybody can easily find ways to spend long hours at a gorgeous beach with perfect water.  I dosed in the shade, or swam, or walked, or did art.  Somedays I wandered around the town and visited some of the cute little cafes and enjoyed the ever-so-tasty Australian coffee.

I’d like to say that New Years was an amazing life changing experience that I could fill three blogs writing about but I can honestly say it wasn’t!  The party atmosphere in Byron that was verging on craziness absolutely exploded that night and all hell broke loose among the streets! It felt like a scene from a movie, or a play.  On the plus side, the people of Byron had got together and put on a family oriented little street market with music and dancing and food and yummy things.  We stuck mostly there for the night and wandered about the streets exploring.

The beach was terrifying.  There was literally NO space to walk without stepping over drunk people.  Bottles were lying smashed among piles of discarded cigarettes and garbage.  The beach that had seemed so perfect and dream-like earlier that day became transformed into some kind dramatization of what the pits of hell might be like.  Haha.  I know that may sound ridiculous but it really is.  Imagine! Loud music pumping, every inch of ground everywhere is covered in drunken, drugged, screaming, writhing people.  Garbage everywhere, horrible smell, police breaking up brawls with huge batons, sirens flashing.  It really was like that!

Like I said, we stayed safely in the family market and found a decent DJ to dance to for a little while, which was actually really fun.  Other random people who were horrified by the destruction of Byron all grouped together and danced away our frustrations as we bonded together in our like-mindedness to the music.  

Eventually, after being in the chaos and fighting away the dark energies for a few hours, and as midnight drew near, “partying” the new year in seemed like the most foul way to welcome the fresh new beginning that was the cause of the ruckus.  We retreated to the peace and quiet.

And so it passed that 2014 came while we perched upon the sand with warm waves tickling our toes, basking in that little bit of peace, and feeling so much gratitude for it.  And looking back on it now, maybe that really was the perfect way for us to spend our new years, in silence.  Maybe that was the exact thing we needed to focus on bringing in more of for the new year.  Not partying, drinking, making noise, but perfect peace, and silence, and finding those things and contentment when all the world around you is in chaos.

                                                                   ***

And in a few days, it was time to move on yet again.  This time we had one destination in mind, and for the first time ever on this trip, it would be time to turn around and head back the way we came after this one last stop.  This last destination was the Sunshine Coast, Queensland!

Many moons past, when we were still in Perth, we had gone to see an Oka show.  Afterwards, we approached Stu (the didgeridoo player) and told him we were musos (Aussie for musicians) from Canada and missed seeing them play at Komasket since the festival had shut town.  Turns out he and his wife, Shayne, were huge fans of Komasket and missed playing there so much that they invited us to come and stay with them. :)
Nice, except, they live literally on the other side of the country, and Australia isn’t exactly a super small and accessible country.  But we said to ourselves, “If there is any way we can make it up to Queensland (northern east coast) even though we are in Perth (south west coast) we will!”
As chance (or is it..?!?) would have it, we just happened to be only 3 or so hours from their doorstep!  And with a couple weeks left before we headed home, it was only natural that we should zip up there and say hello.

It was lovely to connect with Stu and so inspiring for us to get our asses back in gear with music once we got home!  He reminded us of the joys of creating and sharing music, all the while fully welcoming us into his beautiful family.  We were overjoyed to stay at his house, with a view of the ocean and tucked away in the trees, and also glad to connect with a few other musicians who passed through.   

We also discovered a cute cafe, called Raw Earth, and spent our days between Stu’s house, the beach, and this cafe, sampling all of their raw vegan treats, including coconut almond rice milk for the coffee! Yum!

Another amazing small world incident that occurred was when I freakishly bumped into my friend Sarah, who I very vaguely knew to be travelling in Australia, and had made zero plans of meeting up with.  I hadn’t seen Sarah since about grade 9 in highschool back in Vernon, until she randomly exclaimed my name in surprise as we were exiting the beach in Byron Bay.  Once it sunk in exactly what had just occurred, we discovered that she too was living near Stu, just a 15 min drive away!!  It really is a seriously small world.  

So it was nice to connect with Sarah and Raw Earth, and connect with Stu, his music, and his family, and our time on the Sunny Coast was one of the highlights of our entire trip.

But soon it was time to leave, and get to business.  We still had our beloved van to pass onto it’s new owner, as well as a few odds and ends to clear up which needed a big city to be done.  Luckily, more beautiful people were waiting to help us and carry us along!!  Thanks to my yoga course in India back in July, I had befriended four Australians: Jessie and Steve, Jasmine, and Kirsty.  Jessie, Steve and Jasmine were all from Newcastle (just north of Sydney) though surprisingly J&S had never met Jasmine and had made no plans of coming together. (There’s that small world thing again!) And Kirsty was from Wollongong (just south of Sydney.)

Jasmine’s lovely mom put us up in some comfy quarters in their basement and we lived out our finals days in style.  We did a surf trip up to Seal Rocks after Jessie and Steve were kind enough to lend us a bunch of their top quality surf gear.  Orion got to pick out his favorite from Steve’s surfboard collection, and Jessie lent me all her body boarding gear.  We even had fancy wetsuits! Heh! It was fun, especially for Orion who had been riding a very old and worn out board this entire time.

We did a trip to Wollongong to visit Kirsty, who was also lovely to us.  It was so beautiful to connect again after India, when all the sickness, heat, and stress was gone and we were all back in our elements again.  (Not that we didn’t get along or enjoy ourselves for our month together in India, but it was certainly a testing time!)

And all too soon it was time to go.  I wasn’t ready! I don’t think I would ever have been ready.  But I was excited.  CANADA?!? What?! I live there! I love it there! It’s my real home! But it had been so long… We could hardly imagine!

We were so lucky (or was it luck?!? Hehehe) and we had absolutely zero trouble selling our van.  Perfectly on time, when the time was right, it all lined up perfectly.  The guy was going to university in Sydney and wanted to live in a van.  He payed us exactly our asking price, was more than happy to keep the van’s name Xavier, and eager to learn all there was to learn about the engine and maintenance.  

I will say without shame or embarrassment, that I actually shed a tear or two and choked up as I watched our beloved Xavier drive away.  We had put SO MUCH into that van!  So much intense trials and energy, and just pure devoted unconditional love!  No matter what happened, we always said, “We love you Xavier!  No matter what happens, we still love you!”  And he responded so accordingly.  He loved us right back!  Never failing us, always trying his utmost, keeping us safe and sheltered and protected in so many different places and scenarios, carrying us across the red desert of the outback, playing us our favorite music as we cruised for 6 to 9 hours of driving in one day.  If I could have brought him home, I would have in a second!  But I know he is happy and loved and lived in with his new owner, and that’s all I could have asked for.

So with Xavier gone, it really sunk in that we were leaving.  We rode the train to the airport that final day:  Australia day weekend, exactly one year since we had entered the country, so shocked at the amount of partying and drinking that was going on… Was the whole country always like this?? Only to laughingly realize we had accidently stumbled into the biggest and most celebrated holiday of the year!

We were ridiculously overloaded with bags.  Orion had purchased two beautiful and unique didgeridoos up in the Sunshine coast from a mate of Stu’s.  Steve had given him an old surfboard bag and the didges were taped up and wrapped up safely inside.  I had also decided I couldn’t part with my beautiful djembe I had bought back in Perth that I had carried across the country, so I was lugging that.  We also had two stupidly heavy, stupidly huge backpacks, loaded with almost 2 years worth of memories and experiences and little nick nacks from various countries that we had let collect in the van over the last year.  We also had Orion’s guitar, my ukulele, two yoga mats, and one more daypack, everything completely stuffed to absolute bursting with our stuff.  (This is after selling and sorting out EVERYTHING we could part with!)

I’m almost getting emotional just writing this!  It was such an intense time.  After a 14 hour direct flight to Vancouver, and 8 hours of nothing in the Vancouver airport (“Why didn’t we just leave and do something?!?” you might ask.  Wise you are! We thought of this, but when the time came, we were too exhausted to manage anything except snarfing a couple Tim Horton’s bagels [TIM HORTON’S??? Whaaaat!!!] and find the benches for sleeping on) we hopped on our very late flight to Kelowna.

By this time we had already stood outside in the Canadian cold, breathed in the AIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY GOD IT’S AMAZING!!!!!!!!! and felt snow!!! and heard so many hilarious Canadian accents (aboot time eh?) that we were a little acclimatized.

But nothing prepares you for the loving warm hugs from friends and family waiting for you as you round the corner in the arrivals lounge!!  A very beautiful moment, embracing all our loved ones after so long apart, and one we won’t soon forget!

Well… I hate to say it, but this really does conclude our travels abroad for the time being.  It does NOT conclude the ADVENTURES of OM, but it does conclude the Overseas Adventures of OM.  For now, we are happily rooted on home soil, and we are digging our feet in! So glad to be back.

Thank you Canada for being our home country and being so beautiful and free!  And thank you for your winter, despite the cold; it is oh so beautiful!

We wasted no time (well maybe a little) getting back into gear upon arriving home.  After extensive cleaning and organizing of our well-packed possessions, we have actually managed to organize some music!!

Yes, music! We are playing our FIRST CANADIAN GIG in almost 2 YEARS!! Yayyyyy!!

March 29th, at the Om Spirit Ranch… Directions on the tickets, which are available at the Bean Scene for only $10.  

We’ll also be releasing our album that we recorded in Melbourne VERY SOON… So start getting excited with us about that. :)

We would love for you all to come down… To the people that have read to the end of this email, we want to say:

THANK YOU SO MUCH! We write these stories for you!  And when you tell us you enjoy reading them, it warms us to the core!  Please come in March and show us your faces so we can give you giant warm hugs of gratitude!!!

This is not the end… Is it just a new beginning :)

Love

Marina (and Orion)

hOMe