Sophie Barr's decision to take a detour from the post-school path of getting a job or starting a trade, or going to university has turned out to be one of the best of her life.
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That was what the plan was, before running into some family friends whose two boys, who she had gone through school with, had gone over to Canada.
Six weeks later the Tamworth local was jetting off; the two-and-a-half years that followed the best experience of the 22-year-old's life.
"It has been the best thing that I've ever done for myself," Barr said.
The original plan was just to do the winter season over there and come back and for the footy season with Pirates.
But then COVID hit and it wasn't looking like there was going to be a season so she thought she might as well stay on.
She could have then come back last year but she "wanted to experience" a full summer over there.
Based in Jasper, which is an alpine town in the Canadian Rockies, it was an adventurer's paradise.
During winter Barr worked at the ski fields, and when not working would be hitting the slopes.
"We had ride breaks. We'd get an hour-and-a-half or if it was quiet sometimes we could have up to two-and-a-half hours.
"We just spent that skiing," she recalled.
"You'd have lunch in your pockets and you'd be eating on the lift and you would just be skiing for a couple of hours in the middle of the day.
"And then you'd go back in and finish your shift and head on home."
Before going over having never really seen show before, as well as skiing and snowboarding, she also tried her hand at snowshoeing and ski touring, which was "amazing".
In summer she did some horse trail guiding and worked in a bike shop, and took up downhill mountain biking and rock climbing.
With the sun often not setting until midnight, it was easy to lose track of time. She recalled rock climbing at 10 at night.
"We'd be climbing and think we should probably head back in to get our groceries and it would be 10 o'clock at night," she said.
"You wouldn't guess that it's 10 o'clock at night because it's so bright outside."
Not someone who had ever really yearned to travel before, she has well and truly caught the travel bug now. She has "a very long list" of places she wants to visits, many of them for the skiing.
A broken wrist - suffered during one of her mountain biking expeditions - eventually brought her home with Barr coming back in April to have it operated on.
The plan was to return to Canada after that but the comforts of home, and Pirates, enticed her to stay.
"I went to training before I had my op and I was like nah I need to play another season of rugby," she said.
After pursing a double in her first game back, on Saturday she crossed for four tries as they resumed from a three week break with a thumping 97-nil win over Scone.
Barraba/Gwydir picked up their third win in the other game, Ally Johnson and Natalie Phlllpott scoring twice as they beat Quirindi 53-nil.
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