Give Yourself a Break : Here's How One VC employee spent her break
Everyone has their own way of relaxing – reading a good book, catching up with friends or something that lowers stress to the body and mind.
For many people, this includes travelling and going away for holidays. Unfortunately with the Coronavirus pandemic, going away has been a difficult proposition and the routine of lockdowns has had a negative effect on mental health.
My family were lucky enough to travel to Tasmania in January this year for such a break. We had been planning this trip for what seemed like forever, and there were obvious nerves about travelling for the first time since the beginning of 2020. We decided that while everything was quite uncertain in the wake of the new variant, in the short-term there would never be a “perfect” or “obvious” time to travel for a holiday, and we needed to take some time off and mentally recuperate before an inevitably crazy 2022.
We had previously visited Tasmania in 2015 and had really enjoyed the beauty and purity of the surrounding natural environment, so a return trip was pretty high up on our list of potential holiday destinations. This time we decided to focus on travelling along the stunning East Coast, spending a few days maximum at each location before moving on.
One of the highlights of our trip was the scenery found in the Bay of Fires region, which we visited on our first full day. It is well-renowned for the orange lichen-covered boulders combined with turquoise water and white sandy beaches. In this area, even casual lunch stop-overs feature amazing panoramic ocean views! I found being surrounded by nature in this way to be a great opportunity to recalibrate and remember the bigger picture after having to be so insulated and internally focused for 20 months.
We experienced more amazing scenery on the Wineglass Bay Cruise and at the nearby Cape Tourville lookout. While we are very lucky in Sydney to have incredible coastal views, there was something about this latter location that took our breath away and remained my personal favourite experience of the entire trip.
The remaining seven days of our holiday were focused around experiencing more of the coastline, firstly driving south down to Port Arthur. We spent two days exploring the Historic Site and learning about the history of the settlement and the lives of the prisoners.
Our final stop was Hobart for two nights. From here we drove out to Hastings Caves and went on a guided tour of Newdegate Cave, which is the largest dolomite tourist cave in Australia. It was a real change-of-pace from the rest of our trip and was a great insight into how fascinating and terrifying independent cave exploration could be!
Before we flew back to Sydney we all took some time to reflect on how important the break had been. It provided us with a great opportunity to explore a beautiful state, have memorable experiences as a family, and refresh mentally and physically by taking us away from our normal routines.
It can be so easy to get lost in our everyday worries and just let life pass us by – holidays are often a very effective circuit breaker allowing us to recalibrate and reflect on the value that everyday is a gift. So what are you waiting for – get planning!
Darien Dubb-Lynch - VC