The Avoca Folk

CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT THE AVOCA FOLK & WHO IS IN YOUR TRIBE?

Well we are a family of four, Matt is 42 and a previous retail store owner and cafe. Laura is 35 and loves everything health and nutrition. She studied nutritional science and has previously worked in the food manufacturing industry before opening up our Vegan cafe in 2014. We also have our beautiful daughter Frankie who is turning 7 this year. She is our Little Rock in the family always looking after each of us. Myles who is 5 this year is our little adventurer who will take anything on. Travelling Australia has educated our children so much in many different ways. We started our journey 2 years ago around Australia but the real journey began 2 years prior to this when we decided that a life on the road was our true passion and the life of 9-5 was not for us.

YOU’VE CLOCKED UP OVER 50,000KM AND 2 YEARS IN YOUR BELOVED MITSUBISHI ROSA BUS, ELLA BELLA. TELL US YOUR INSPIRATION TO LIVE ADVENTURE - FILLED ROAD TRIPPING AROUND AUSTRALIA.

Our love of surfing has always taken us to the ocean. When Laura and I first started seeing each other we travelled in my Toyota Hiace to surf spots every weekend throughout Victoria and up the east coast to Byron. This is where we started to love life on the road and often talked about doing it full time. We actually got married in Byron and road tripped up to the wedding from Victoria to Byron, it was on the way back that we talked about how we should just keep going. But it took 6 more years and many life lessons before we fulfilled our dream. To get to here took a long time though, two years of selling off everything and the crazy idea to raffle off our beloved Vegan Cafe for the price of a chocolate bar.

YOU COMPLETELY CHANGED YOUR LIFE TO BEGIN THIS TRIP, TAKING THE MINIMALISTIC APPROACH AND RECONNECTING TO THE SIMPLER SIDE OF LIFE. HOW DID YOUR ADVENTURE HANDLE THE CHANGE THAT CAME WITH THE PANDEMIC?

It definitely through our plans out the window, but that only opened up so many more doors and crazy adventures. We were in Tasmania when covid landed in Australia and everything closed down, every national park, pretty much the whole state was a ghost town. We stayed on a friends property for a short while but then realised it was time to head back to Victoria. This was before the second “event” so we decided it was best to head north to get away from it all. This meant no WA as planned and we were now heading to NT, which turned out to be a life changing experience.

THE LAST FEW MONTHS HAVE BEEN PRETTY WILD FOR ALL OF THE PARENTS OF THE WORLD. IT’S ALSO TIME TO SLOW DOWN AND FIND TIME FOR REFLECTION. HOW HAVE YOUR EXPERIENCES OVER THE LAND & SEA CHANGED YOUR FAMILY?

I guess when you put it that way travelling around Australia is similar in many ways. We’ve had two years to be present with our growing children and spend every day of their developing years with them. We’ve learnt to stay present and go with the flow, without pushing anything. These tools have been tested at times when coming back into built up society but we always pull ourselves back into alignment by getting grounded at the beach and going for a surf.

WHAT TO DATE HAS BEEN YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE ON THE LAND OR SEA IN AUSTRALIA AND WHY?

Arnhem Land was a life changing experience for us. We were fortunate to be invited out to stay with a good friend and through this contact we were invited to stay out on a Homeland with amazing Yolngu people in a paradise called Bawaka. We learnt so much about living on the land and moving with the tide and sun, not a mobile phone clock. Our whole trip we had wanted to spend time on land with traditional custodians of our great land and Arnhem land provided everything. We now have a family that we will always go back and see no matter how far the journey.

WE HEARD YOU’RE NOW STAYING IN NOOSA FOR A LITTLE LONGER. WHAT IS YOUR FOCUS FOR BUSINESS AND LIFE?

Our daughter Frankie had been talking last year about her ambition to learn in school. We always want our children to be able to speak up and make decisions for themselves so we respected that and were lucky enough to have her excepted into the Montessori School in Sunshine. She has just started this week and absolutely loving it . So we have decided to settle for a short while whilst we launch a new product which is a mushroom blend of drink with Ayurvedic spices and chocolate. This is something Laura has worked on for two years and we have shared throughout Australia with all our amazing bus life friends. We have also become distributors of Kangen water ionising business and plan to share the importance of the quality of the water we drink. Our body is made up of 72% water so we feel the quality of what we drink is pretty important.

WHERE TO NEXT?
Our discussions recently have been about heading back home to Victoria for a short visit before heading back to Tasmania to complete our travels there and then off to SA and WA. BUT, plans always change so will just get in the Bus on the day we are leaving and see which way she wants us to go :)