Lydia Williams came to Canada for football and left renewed…

Standing alone on centre field, Lydia Williams looks up at the seats rising around her at BC Place in Downtown Vancouver – a stadium she last stepped onto as a player during the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, when it was bursting with colour and cheers. “In the silence, it feels so much bigger,” she says.

Williams is back in Vancouver after a career spent moving through stadiums like this one – becoming the first Australian female goalkeeper and only the second Indigenous footballer, after Kyah Simon, to surpass 100 international caps, including appearing at five World Cups and two Olympic Games.

She’s joined by Bob Lenarduzzi, a former Canadian player who helped establish professional football in the country and played a key role in bringing top-flight football to Vancouver. As they walk the pitch, he tells Williams of the early days – when football struggled to compete.

“Canadians love watching ice hockey so for years football wasn’t really on the radar,” says Williams. “Most of the best players went overseas and it wasn’t until Canadian teams like the Vancouver Rise found success that people really got behind it.”

It’s a pattern she knows well, as many Australians have built careers abroad. Williams herself played overseas, with stints at Chicago Red Stars and Houston Dash in the US, Sweden’s Piteå IF and England’s most successful club in the WSL, Arsenal.

But the similarities between Australia and Canada run much deeper. Williams, a proud Noongar woman, already sees the way a connection to land fits at the centre of everyday life here.

“Landing in Vancouver, you see soaring mountains, fjords and the ocean – with this sparkling city in the centre of it all. You can feel how intertwined nature and culture are before you hit the ground.”

Enjoying real flavours

Lunch is at Salmon n’ Bannock, where owner Inez Cook, known for championing Indigenous cuisine in Canada, has created a space where food, stories and community come together around the table.

“It feels like identity and family all in one,” says Williams. “A place of comfort but also discovery. Hearing Inez talk about what she’s been through and how she’s built this place… her stories are in the dishes.”

Bannock, a pan-fried bread born of survival and shaped by generations of resilience, anchors the meal. A drink made with native soapberries follows, the liquid transforming into a light foam as it’s mixed – a whimsical natural reaction that’s part of gatherings, ceremonies and celebrations.

“And then the salmon, which she served as a ceviche-style dish with onions, citrus and spice. It’s the best salmon I’ve eaten in a very, very long time,” says Williams.

Some of the freshest seafood can be sourced from Granville Island Public Market – a bright sprawl of produce stands, fishmongers, bakeries, breweries and other unique and quirky artisans (like a popular hand-carved broom shop).

“It’s like a big farmers’ market that runs all year, with all-local vendors – people who’ve been there for years and years.”

At one fish stall, Williams meets Nick, who now runs the business passed down from his grandfather and father. “Every place has a story like that. Everyone knows each other and everyone is working together.”

Even a bike ride around the Vancouver Seawall – a waterfront path that loops the city for 28 kilometres – reveals not only how beautiful the city is but how easily connections are made here.

“You get a bit of everything: the city, the neighbourhoods, the trees and the beaches,” says Williams. “I didn’t even know Vancouver had beaches. And along the way everyone’s more than happy to tell you their favourite place. You ask one question and suddenly you have five places to go.”

Finding real transformations

Among the views and thrills, there are also the small, quiet moments that allow for self-reflection and true relaxation.

On Granville Island, Circle Wellness offers a private spa experience in the city centre.

“There’s this cedar soaking tub that’s nice and hot, with the sky open above you so you’re in the elements,” says Williams. “Plus a cold plunge and a sauna with salt walls. You slow down, reflect, realise how tired you are and feel the stress leave your body. It was a moment to find myself again.”

Back in Whistler, Scandinave Spa offers another restorative experience – an outdoor circuit of hot baths and cold plunges, surrounded by wild woodland. Different setting, same sense of calm.

And like much of the trip, it’s easy to reach – part of a place where rainforest, culture, mountains and serenity sit side by side.

“Everything is easy to get to. It makes me want to seek that more. I came for football but I’m leaving fulfilled. And I want to come back.”

Discovering real wonders

Follow enough local advice and sooner or later you’ll be sent north of the city. Capilano Suspension Bridge Park offers a taste of Vancouver’s scale with a 140-metre bridge above the rainforest canyon and a trail of totem poles. Then comes the Sea-to-Sky Highway – a ribbon of road that winds towards Whistler through Squamish.

“It’s such a beautiful route that if you’re driving it for the first time, you could almost lose your way just looking around,” says Williams.

The scenery rises to another level aboard the Peak 2 Peak Gondola, where riders climb steadily above the forests before floating above Whistler and Blackcomb.

“It takes about 25 minutes to get to the top, which gives you an idea of how big things are. There’s something freeing about being in that scale of wilderness. It really puts into perspective how little we are.”

At the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, that sense of place takes on more meaning. Designed by acclaimed Indigenous architect Alfred Waugh, the timber, stone and glass building opens to the mountains beyond, keeping the landscape in constant view.

“It’s so interesting seeing the differences and similarities between Indigenous cultures in Australia and Canada and how everything – the animals and seasons – shapes how people live,” says Williams.

Guide Braden Joe-Wallace leads her through the galleries and explains how traditions continue through dance, art and community life.

“It all feels so alive,” says Williams. “This isn’t the past – this is how things are being done today.”

Making real connections

One of the best places to experience how nature and urban life come together is Stanley Park – a 400-hectare coastal rainforest just steps from Downtown, where cedar and hemlock trees, some hundreds of years old, sit on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

Williams joins Indigenous guide Talaysay Campo with Talaysay Tours. She shares stories of the land as they wander forested trails, stopping to look, touch and listen.

“It feels like being one with nature, while also being welcomed into someone else’s home,” says Williams. “I can see how much she loves the land – not just doing the tours but the land itself.”

During a quiet moment together resting under the canopy, they had an encounter with even more locals.

“We were standing there and suddenly there were ducks and a goose surrounding us. They weren’t looking for food and they weren’t threatened. It was so peaceful.”