Posts belonging to Category 'North of River'

Getaway Goals: Gift Mum a Road-Trip for Mother’s Day This Year!

@the_part_time_vanlife

Did somebody say ROAD TRIP? After being cooped up for literal years, the thought of hitting the open road (jack) to check out some of the stunning forests, beaches & mountains that WA has to offer has our wanderlust desires tingling.

With restrictions easing across the state just in time for Mother’s Day, there’s never been a better time to treat yourself, and mum, by indulging in some crisp, autumn air, idyllic scenery & of course our world-class eats and drinks – and a road trip in a campervan is the perfect gift to make these intra-state travel dreams a reality!

We’ve rounded up our 5 fave, cute vans from campervan hire company, Camplify, that the fam will love (and even better news, they offer gift vouchers which are perfect for Mother’s Day!) – check them out and let us know your favourites in the comments!

Frankie
Craigie, WA

Frankie has everything mum needs to embark on the ultimate glamping experience. With the ability to sleep two as well as bring a furry companion along, Frankie is also solar powered & has the option for going completely off grid. This super boujee van is available for pick up just north of Perth in the coastal suburb of Craigie. So what are you waiting for? Gift mum an unforgettable experience in the beautiful van, Frankie.

Zaidee
North Beach, WA

Zaidee was created from the inspiration of the ocean and nature, giving her a “coastal boho” interior design. Her neutral and fresh appearance creates the perfect home on wheels, making you feel comfortable and relaxed wherever you park up. Zaidee is perfect for mum to bring along one other or simply have some time to herself featuring a queen sized bed, power for appliances and a TV.

Harry the Hiace
Innaloo, WA

Meet Harry the Hiace, he’s a fully equipped van with all your basic pantry essentials, pots and pans, an ‘everything you need’ kitchen with cooker, fridge and sink. Harry even has a prime sunset spot called ‘the lawn’ which is a fully functional roof rack with ladder, covered in fake grass so you and mum can enjoy the stunning sunset or sunrise. Harry also provides a few other essential items including camping chairs, a portable blender, projector and charging station to charge your phone. He’s thought of everything!

Art Vandelay
Exmouth, WA

Sleeping two, Art Vandelay is super cute van that has been renovated to include everything you need for a perfect coastal holiday. He’s located in Exmouth, which is situated in the stunning North West Cape area of WA, and what better way to explore the famous coastline & beaches that this area has to offer? Venture to the outskirts of Exmouth, or Coral Bay, and go on one of the best snorkelling trips in Australia around the Ningaloo reef. Art Vandelay is available for pick up in Exmouth or delivery within 50km of the town.

Tilly The Tourister
Neerabup, WA

Tilly the Tourister is a hard-floor camper trailer sleeping four, allowing mum to go away on a girls trip with friends or, if you’re lucky enough to get invited along, family. Tilly exudes a luxe coastal vibe which fits perfectly for a beach holiday. This clean and fresh van has all the indulgences including aircon and heating, coffee machine, shower and toilet plus solar panels to go totally off grid.

So, which one of these beauties will you and mum be off adventuring in? Our pick is… all of them!

Be well,

xoxo

Soft Yoga Perth – Leederville Yoga Studio Review.

When I say that this yoga studio has changed and continues to change my life, I mean it. For many years now I’ve wished that the perfect yoga studio would magically open up on my street. A space to move and breathe and connect deeply to myself that has teachers I like, styles of yoga I like and that also happens to be minutes from my house. It never happened, until now.

As if the universe could read my thoughts, one day I was walking past an empty building that had just been leased on Oxford Street, Leederville and a thought popped into my head – ‘a yoga studio is going to open here’. It did, and the studio was Soft Yoga Perth – a womxns only movement space & a soft place to rest.

Specialising in ‘softer’ styles, such as slow flow, restorative, yin, meditation, breathwork, sensual classes and MORE (!!), this space exceeded my wildest dreams and then some.

When you arrive for class you’ll cocoon yourself in their impossibly soft and seriously cloud-like fluffy, grey blankets while sinking into the blush pink Lululemon mats which perfectly match the aesthetic of the studio.

In any given class, a gorgeous woman will lead you into a deeper discovery of yourself and you’ll leave feeling incredible, and maybe a few tears lighter as their classes are renowned for gently dislodging your deep emotions. I’ve cried there at least ten times, including today.

They also have the CUTEST shop selling the best little feminine goodies and treats – the Loca Love chocolates and La Loba Cliterally Amazing oil will change your life 😉

Do yourself a favour and discover this cute studio. You’ll need to book in advance as spaces are very limited – my personal recommendations are the Monday 9:30am Slow Flow with Tess, Thursday 9:30am Restorative with Brenna, any of the Slow Flow’s with Corne, and Courtney’s 9:30am Friday class!

Check out their intro offer for a month of unlimited yoga for $39. You’ll want to sign up for the membership once your month is up – trust me!

Soft Yoga Perth can be found at:

2/253 Oxford Street, Leederville
www.softyogaperth.com

Be well,

Annette

xoxo

Wellness Wrap-Up: Bikram Yoga Comes to Perth City, More Acai in Fremantle, Free Fitness Classes & Your Best Booty Yet!

What started as an idea for a fortnightly segment has quickly turned very popular, with over 150 views in one day of the first edition (!) – and as I was squirreling away information for the next wrap-up, it quickly became obvious that there is just SO much going on in Perth’s wellness scene right now that a weekly post might be more fitting, so here we go! Would love your feedback as always xo

♥ Acai Brothers Fremantle

With warm weather just around the corner and beach season just about to get into full swing, there’s nothing like an icy bowl of deliciousness to help you escape the heat. Even better if that icy bowl comes in the form of a superfood-packed, skin & body loving antioxidant feast that just so happens to be bright purple and out of this world tasty.

While Natures Harvest, Bowl’n, Ohana Acai Bar, Hylin, Pearth Organic & more have been serving up Acai bowls on the reg in Perth for a while now – Acai Brothers Fremantle are the latest folks to join in on the action.

Initial reports seem to indicate that all of the bowls are blended with guarana with no option for omission – which may cut out a lot of their potential customer base (including me!) who are sensitive to caffeine/stimulants – but if an intense hit of energy along with your daily superfood dose is what you’re after, then this might just be your new favourite healthy haunt.

Acai Brothers is located @ 64 High Street, Fremantle.

The latest new yoga studio to get bendy, stretchy & sweaty in Perth is Original Hot Yoga – located on the cusp of Highgate & East Perth! Offering 100% Bikram Yoga classes (a sequence of 26 postures & 2 breathing exercises are practiced in a room heated to 40 degrees), this studio promises to change your life in 60 days.

Curious to check it out but worried about the heat or not being flexible enough? All of the classes cater to beginners – you’re more than welcome to rest at any time during class and just breathe on your mat. Just make sure to drink 2-3 litres of water per day when practicing & get your electrolytes in, as you’ll lose loads of water with all the sweating you’ll be doing.

Original Hot Yoga is located at 179 Claisebrook Road, Perth, and will be opening In November.

♥ HBF Free Fitness Classes are Back!

HBF offer free fitness classes to their members each year for 8 weeks and you’ll no doubt see large groups of people exercising around the place taking advantage of the generous offer! If you’re a member head over to the HBF Fitness website to sign up and start your Summer fitness journey.

♥ Lisa Burns Training Studio!

Last but certainly not least is a brand new studio from booty-sculpting dream babe Lisa Burns. Her brand new location in Doubleview, which is aptly named “Lisa Burns Training Studio“, is your one stop shop to get bikini ready & that booty poppin’.

Her signature “Booty Burn” class has a cult following, and take it from personal experience – your butt, thighs & stomach will be sore for DAYS. But the results are so worth it.

Along with Booty Burn the studio also offers Box & Booty (can’t wait to try this one!), Strength & Flow and regular boxing classes to fast-track your way to ultra fit. Once you’ve felt the burn you can check out the on-site cafe, Mr Herbert’s, for a caffeine, cold-pressed juice or raw treat fix. What more could you want?

Lisa Burns Training Studio is located at 243 Herbert Street, Doubleview.

Let me know in the comments below if you’re keen to check out any of these new Perth wellness & fitness options!

Be well,

Annette

xoxo

Why I saw A Naturopath When I Felt Healthier Than Ever.

It’s been 4 years since I last popped in for a check up with my naturopath, Marnie Downer. In those past 4 years I have undergone some huge changes in my life – from working in the fast paced world of agency PR while running this website, to leaving the PR world behind for a part-time job at lululemon with dreams of growing the website to a full-time gig, and then unexpectedly starting a high-stress business from scratch for the next 3 years. During that time my body & mind were pushed to their limits. I lost 10 kilos, gained it back again & had at LEAST 2 mental breakdowns in the process.

While I’m in a much better place emotionally & physically now and I’m a big believer that everything you experience is valuable and full of lessons, I can’t help but wish I’d kept in touch with Marnie while I was going through it all so she could have helped me care for myself a little better!

Today I went to see her again for a very different reason than I have previously, and I’m going to suggest that you should do the same (with her, or another naturopath that you like the look of!) no matter what is going on in your life.

Right now, I’m in a really good place. I enjoy my job, am completing yoga teacher training, have 2-3 days off a week, am learning to cook and meal prep nourishing meals, getting Wellness WA back up and running, sleeping well, low anxiety, learning to run, starting personal training again next week… I could go on as there really are loads of things I am happy about and grateful for in my life at the moment.

However, how often do we only seek help when things are dire? When we’ve well & truly hit the wall. Ground zero. Nowhere else to go.

What if we flipped this and continued working to improve ourselves and our lives when things are already going well?

With this in mind I decided to book in to see what I could tweak and improve in my “pretty good, most of the time, except when I drink wine, eat chocolate & smash a packet of chips” health & wellness routine, so that I can run with the good things that I’ve already got, and maybe add a few little improvements here and there to see even greater results.

It was well worth the appointment and I learnt that the next steps for me personally are taking an activated vitamin b supplement to improve stress resilience, drinking licorice tea to support my adrenal glands, upping the hot water with lemon for overall vitality & making sure to make my green tea with 80 degree water instead of boiling so that all the goodness is intact.

I also feel really empowered knowing that someone has my back nutritionally, knows my full medical history & diet and is making her recommendations based on my personal body makeup and goals.

I wholeheartedly recommend a visit to a naturopath (Marnie or otherwise) – they can tell you all kinds of things you never knew about yourself and your body, and I find I learn something new every single time I have an appointment. Whether you have an acute issue, are feeling a bit stressed or even are just tired all of the time, there is help available and it’s only a phone call or an email away 🙂

So, have you considered seeing a naturopath before? Are you in a dire situation physically or mentally? Or are things going pretty good but maybe they could be just a little bit better? Let me know – my passion for this area has been reinvigorated and I’d love to help point you in the right direction!

Be well,

Annette

xoxo

Perth Wellness Retreat: Nature's Paradise, Mundaring.

Every now and then, I have what I like to call “ahh” moments. Something will cause me to pull my focus out of the hustle and bustle of everyday life, to sit back and appreciate the beauty of what is in front of me. I had one of these “ahh” moments as I arrived at Nature’s Paradise Wellness Retreat. Situated in Mundaring, about 45 minutes drive from central Perth, it feels a million miles from the daily grind, without actually being that far away at all.

Nature’s Paradise opened at Easter just this year, and owners Neil and Jenny have worked wonders to create such a beautiful space. The forest provides a breathtaking backdrop, and the retreat itself is a grand beauty. Neil welcomed me as I arrived, and gave me a tour of the retreat, which features 3 suites, each with access to the wrap-around balcony, plus a library, a guest retreat area and communal dining and sitting areas. The guest retreat area comes complete with an outdoor, claw-foot bath, hammocks, a massage room and infra-red sauna – just what this city girl’s aching muscles called for!

♥ The view from the Library

♥ The guest retreat area, with hammock seats and bath

♥ The outdoor bath

After showing me the house, we moved on to the gardens. Neil has worked incredibly hard to bring Nature’s Paradise to life, and his passion for the retreat is infectious. We toured the veggie garden, which provides an increasing amount of the produce used in the kitchen, and the various rock paths Neil has created to cater for guests who want to get some fresh air without straying too far from the comforts of their room. I wanted to see more of the forest, and Neil was more than happy to oblige- we walked for about an hour through the trees, stopping to take in some beautiful views of Mundaring Weir and the dam, as well as dropping by the Learning Centre, before coming home for a relaxing herbal tea and a chat with Jenny. On our wanders we spotted an echidna, wandering very lazily over the trail, which shows just how close to nature this retreat really is!

♥ The veggie patch

♥ Mr Echidna

♥ The views of Mundaring Weir

♥ The beautiful forest surrounding Natures Paradise

I have to be honest, at this point I didn’t think my visit could get much better, but it did! At Nature’s Paradise, all food is catered for- guests have access to fresh fruit and vegetables, tea and coffee, plus delicious treats made by Jenny throughout the day, and meals are served in the dining room which showcases the stunning forest scenery.

All food is vegetarian, organic, made in-house and mostly prepared according to raw food principles, but meat-eaters do not despair, you won’t feel like you’re missing out at all!

Dinner began with a pumpkin soup- warm, hearty and delicious, served with spelt bread, butter and olive oil with balsamic.

Next was Nature’s Paradise’s specialty- pizza! This pizza was no Domino’s variety though- made in a dehydrator with a buckwheat base full of herbs, and topped with avocado, olives, mushrooms, onion, capsicum and a cashew ‘cheese’, it tasted amazing and was as good for my body as it was for my taste buds! The recipe is a well-guarded secret, but Neil did share some tips with me which I am keen to try in my own kitchen!

The meal would not have been complete without sampling some of the home made ‘fruit & nut’ chocolates, which were absolutely divine!

Earlier during my tour of the property, I had gushed over the beautiful claw-foot bath on the deck in the outdoor guest retreat area. Jenny was kind enough to run me a macrobiotic sea salt bath after dinner, and as I lay in the bubbling water, looking up at the trees in the night sky, the cool air above me, I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt so relaxed. It was truly something special.

After my bath, I returned to my very spacious room, with its luxurious king-size bed and spa bath ensuite, and fell straight asleep (no prizes for guessing that I slept like a baby!).

♥ My very spacious Grande Deluxe room

Unfortunately I had to get up well before the sun in order to get back to my day-to-day responsibilities, but even then, Jenny made sure that a beautiful continental breakfast was laid out for me. Had I stayed, I was told that I could have expected a beautiful cooked breakfast, including eggs, buckwheat pancakes, fresh fruit and juices, plus tea, coffee and almost anything else my heart desired!

Nature’s Paradise is perfectly named- it is exactly that! Neil and Jenny are fabulous hosts- so welcoming, generous and knowledgeable- and they have created a place that truly caters for every interest. Whether you want to relax in the gardens, soak in the bath, challenge yourself with a personal training session, meditate or hike in the forest or ride trails through the trees, they have thought of it all! I have been reading lots of articles lately about the benefits of spending time with nature, and I absolutely agree. I left Nature’s Paradise feeling so well-rested, renewed and reinvigorated and would recommend it to anyone looking for a retreat to truly nourish mind, body and soul.

You can visit www.naturesparadise.com.au or telephone Neil 0412 977 487 or Jenny 0403 718 050 for more information.

What do you enjoy doing to “retreat”? What makes you feel rested and renewed? Let me know in the comments below!

Article by Katie, a wellness-focused career girl with a newfound appreciation for the power of nature.

Be well,

xoxo

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