Wow I will never leave that beach if I get my feet in that warm sand and turquoise water! I can almost feel it on my feet already! So amazing. You are lucky to live by that beach, I would be there every day! I can Imagine a country the size of Australia would be overwhelming to visit in a short time, same here if I go it's for a month or two until they kick me out hehe. One thing I noticed with the rockies and probably the same with aus, there are so many little features that are unique to the land, unless traveling with a local it's easy to miss some of them.

Canada is pretty massive, even a month you will really have to pick and choose your moments. I'm from the east coast and moved to the west, there is so much to experience at different times of year all over the country. There is a lot I have yet to see in my own country and I like visiting all kinds of things and festivals. For optimal wilderness, the west and Rockies is definitely the place to go especially if you like huge wilderbeast that want to eat or trample you. If you like backpacking, they have several back-country campgrounds with advance bookings but they fill up fast as soon as they start taking reservations. Many amazing trails in the Rockies. My mission in life to discover and journal them all on my blog. I don't know about aus but here it's hard to get good online info for free attractions and trail details, everyone trying to sell some tour (they are nice too but it gets costly).

Yes, well trained water taster, I keep my water bottles from hikes and bottle my own when I can, I usually carry a few. On a technicality, the picture from the glacier is the water I drink everyday, it's where our watershed begins(but it taste so much better strait from the source), I have a slight obsession with mapping local hydrology. Kananaskis Country has killer water too (near Banff National Park but less touristy, where the locals hangout during high season).

And the hat, haha thanks, we end up the tourist attraction with them, especially Asians! Everyone gets excited to meet a real Albertan on their vacation.