Well this is not your average jewelry blog post but I wanted to share with you the last 3 months of my life and the journeys that have inspired me and my latest creations.
If you love to travel or wish to do it vicariously through me for the next few minutes read on…
The last few months have been spent traveling through 3 different countries and 3 different seasons. We went from the depths of winter in Canada to the rainy days in New Zealand and then to Australia where the rain followed us.
Soon the rain subsided and we were given the true Melbourne experience with 30+ degree days, which proceeded to follow us to Tasmania where the real adventure began. Tasmania amazed us with incredible white sand beaches, crystal clear water, rolling green pastures with happily grazing sheep and cows as far as the eye could see.
We spent two weeks cruising the Eastern Drive in Tassie, from Launceston to the coast, stopping at bay after bay to take in the scenery. We headed North to the Bay Of Fires, turquoise water greeted us with fiery lichen covered rocks giving this beautiful beach its very appropriate name. It inspired a new series of yoga malas I have added to Rock The Feather’s current collection.
As we meandered our way through the windy country roads of Tasmania we found ourselves in the slightly more populated area of Cole’s Bay. From here we hiked into the ever popular Wineglass Bay, this beautiful Bay is shaped as a wineglass – you guessed it! We saw beautiful views of the bay below, and decided to trek on down to it! We were greeted with an incredible view of the clearest water I have ever seen and sand so fine it squeaked when we walked upon it! This incredible experience was due to the fact the nearby rocks have a high quartz content and when they break down throughout the changing seasons they transform into luscious white sand. OOohh Quartz how I love thee!
We spent the night in Wineglass Bay camped out with our new neighbours, wallabies! We also awoke in the middle of the night to a little critter trying to tear a hole into our tent, a possum, turns out they are quite the pest. We hiked out from Wineglass and took the scenic route out along a ridge line with ocean on one side and a fire stricken forest opposite. We got back to the car and continued a little further south for dinner, we treated ourselves to a rustic oven fired pizza and hit up friendly beach to add a view!
Next stop was my favourite of our adventure, Maria Island (pronounced Mariah.) We called ahead to book in for the ferry the following day, $45 round trip to the little island and back. We caught the 11 o’clock sailing the following morning clad with backpacks full of nourishing treats, water for the following day, along with a tent and our trusty REI camping mattresses. Maria Island is full of history and you can feel the energy around it as soon as you arrive. It was originally filled with convicts back in the 1800’s they were put to work farming and building cement silos that still stand today.
We pitched our tent for the night and decided to take a gamble on the clouds and hike the highest peak on the island. Mt Maria stands 703m high and majestic as you would imagine, the journey began shortly after 1pm and off we went. We hiked along the ranger service road, pass the Painted Cliffs and into the forest. The lush greenery was remarkable, Tasmania experienced a great deal of flooding before we had arrived and we reaped the benefits. We hiked for nearly two hours before we saw another person, a tall gentleman wearing a canadian hat greeted us on his way down. We continued onward to an epic rock slide section the we read about before embarking. The clouds had dispersed and the sweltering heat was upon us. We continued up the rock slide avoiding the sun bathing skinks that lined the path ahead. We ran into another couple heading down another 30 or so minutes later and they assured us that we were nearly through the hardest part of the journey!
As we climbed higher the rocks got larger and larger, we followed the reflective arrows that pointed to the sky. Back into the forest we went, soon to find another boulder lined section and at last we had reached the peak! The clouds had cleared and the view was remarkable! We were literally on top of the world, at least on top the Mt Maria that’s for sure. We looked down onto the the beautiful McRae Isthmus below separating Riedle Bay from Oyster Bay. The koolaid coloured water against the sandy beach and the contrast of green bush below created an incredible visual. We stopped for a snack and photo op before heading down. As we sat upon the peak and took in the contrasting 360 degree views we felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and joy.
On the way back to camp we spotted a furry critter in the bush, a common wombat. As we continued back to camp we startled another wombat in the bush, he ran onto the path in front of us and was not quite sure what to do with himself. We crept up close for a photo of the not so little critter. As the sun began to set the animals became more apparent, by the time we got back to camp we had seen 9 Wombats, 12 Pademelons, 5 Wallabies, 7 Forester Kangaroos, 6 Cape Barren Geese and countless others as the night went on. We cooked up dinner and headed off to bed soon to be startled by a rare Tasmania Devil minutes later. We got back up to see what the ferocious sound was about but didn’t quite catch a glimpse, off to bed we went. We awoke the next morning for a more leisurely day of breakfast, some beach combing and a stroll out to the Painted Cliffs just in time for low tide to catch the full view. We headed back to the mainland that afternoon after an amazing experience immersed in nature on an island where the animals are the only true residents and the vehicles are limited to 3 work trucks run by the ranger service.
We finished off our journey in Tasmania with some of the local sites in Hobart, including the amazing Mt. Wellington. This time we decided to give the legs a rest and drove the paved road all the way to the top of the 1,271m high mountain that overlooked the spanning city of Hobart below. We finished off our time in Hobart with a visit to MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art, created by David Walsh. This was Mr.Walsh’s private collection he shared with the public but ran the entire operation at a loss, or so I heard. Walsh made his money working out an algorithm to win in horse racing and won big he did. He renovated MONA several years ago spending over 75 million dollars in upgrades including a his own winery, brewery, stage and multiple restaurants on site as well as cafes. Not to mention the expansive art all throughout the property and museum itself. Many controversial and purely shocking pieces as well as so not well understood styles of art existed too. We enjoyed meandering through the buildings and exploring the property. We finished off in Hobart and headed back to Launceston to spend the last few days with friends and checked out a few local waterfalls, swimming holes and cooked some meals with friends before our departure.
We left Tasmania with exceeded expectations and boarded our flight back to Melbourne to spend the weekend with our friend Momo we met while in California last year. Back in the big city we had the opportunity to attend Laneway Music Festival which takes place in the lanes of Melbourne along the Yarra River once a year and has some great music acts but quite the crowd to accompany them. We were lucky enough to have a double dose of music that weekend and were able to catch the huge event of St Kilda’s Festival the following day along Melbourne’s famous beach. We checked out multiple stages, belly dancers, guided meditations, art exhibits, beer gardens and ate our fair share of free watermelon along the way. As our time in Australia came to an end we began to pack our bags and reflect on the journey. We boarded the midnight flight for New Zealand to begin the next leg of the adventure.
We have been back in Auckland for just over two weeks and Jono has been hard at work converting our Nissan Homy Van into our new home for the next few months. I have been helping out along the way and creating plenty of new pieces for the Rock The Feather jewelry collection in my down time. I have come home filled with gratitude and joy, feeling so blessed to have the opportunity to see the world the way we are able to. As we continue to add on some additional touches to the van we have my Mom visiting for the next few weeks and we look forward to taking her and the new van on some amazing adventures around New Zealand. Along the way I will be creating new pieces for the collection from some of the most scenic work locations I could every imagine.
I hope you enjoyed some insight into the life, and the maker behind Rock The Feather. It is not only me that goes on the adventure, I always take my work with me, and I can assure you there are some well traveled pieces in the current collection.
Bursting with love and creative intention,
Nikki
Rock The Feather