The 2020 Website! | Time for a needed change!
When I left Belgium a year ago to travel the world, I was convinced I’d return home in August 2019. Somewhere halfway through my travels, that plan got delayed — significantly. One year later, I’m still wandering, unsure when I’ll return.
To fit this next chapter, I’m starting 2020 with a newly built website — one that feels much closer to what my life looks like now. It brings together my long-running music website (that’s been online for years) with my new travel blog that I originally built on another platform. Along with that, I’ve added a small education section to share teaching projects and creative ideas from the road.
And since it’s the first day of the year: happy new year from Australia! 🎉 The last six months have been quieter than those first mad months of backpacking. I’m travelling slower now — less about collecting destinations, more about building moments that actually stay with me. I never expected it, but after my time living in Melbourne, I somehow ended up on a tiny island in the middle of the Bass Strait: the one and only King Island.
Life on King Island 🧀🌊
The move happened fast. After finishing the Great Ocean Walk in October, I stayed around Melbourne trying to find farm work for my visa extension. I was optimistic at first. Then came endless bad offers, farms that didn’t exist, or jobs that wanted twelve-hour shifts for next to nothing. Each week, my savings dropped lower.
One night, while working a cleaning shift in the hostel kitchen, I was chatting with one of the other backpackers. He mentioned offhandedly that he had just left King Island Dairy, where he’d been working as a cheesemaker. “They might still need someone,” he said casually, before going back to scrubbing a pot.
That single sentence changed everything.
Three days later, I spent what was left of my bank account on a flight across the strait — a ticket to somewhere I hadn’t even Googled yet. When the little plane landed, King Island looked like something from a postcard. Green fields and the kind of silence you forget exists when you live in cities like Melbourne. No traffic, no noise, no rush — just the smell of the sea.
At first, I stayed with a strange Ukrainian guy. Eventually, I moved in with three Germans — the kind of housemates who always have music playing, bread baking, and cold beer in the fridge after every shift. From that moment, island life took shape.
King Island Dairy
My job at King Island Dairy started the next week. King Island’s milk comes from ten local family farms, delivered fresh each day. My job rotates between different parts of production. Cutting curds, salting, flipping the cheese wheels, and packing the finished rounds by hand. It’s loud and warm inside, cold and windy outside, and I love both.
By the time 5:30 a.m. alarms turned into routine, I found my rhythm. Work, home, beach, repeat. Days at the factory are long but steady.Eevenings are made for watching kangaroos hop across paddocks or heading down to the beach. Sometimes I swim, sometimes I just stand in the freezing water until my feet go numb. It’s wild to think about how wildly different this life is from pulling espresso shots in the Docklands or cleaning hostel kitchens back in Melbourne.
What I love most is the contrast. Melbourne was all energy, noise, and constant movement. King Island is stillness, calm, and small victories that add up. I’m learning patience here — how to enjoy simplicity again. It’s a proper reset, and with each passing week, I can feel it working.
Before I wrap up, I want to say thank you for all the phone calls, messages, and parcels that somehow made their way to this little island. Celebrating my birthday, Christmas, and New Year here felt different — slower, quieter, but meaningful in ways I didn’t expect.
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