Twenty years ago, Di Westaway was fatigued, fed up and seriously unfit. With nothing but an impending 40th birthday and bottomless washing basket to look forward to, she started wondering: is this all there is?

Then, out of the blue, an acquaintance invited her on a hiking expedition to remote South America. It wasn’t just any old hike… it was climbing Mt Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere. Impulsively, surprising even herself, she said yes. She was a former athlete, how hard could it be?

Di discovered that fitness allows you to get to places most people can’t go. When you’re hike fit, you can enjoy a cuppa tea on a remote mountain top, plunge naked into a glacial lake surrounded by squealing friends, jump off a waterfall in the shadow of an active volcano or scale a jagged rock tower in time for the sunrise.

Di skilled up and started ‘Trek Training’ for women in her local national park. She trained coaches and clients, and together they travelled the world hiking iconic trails such as Mt Kilimanjaro and Machu Picchu.

The thing is, we can’t all jet off overseas to climb mountains. But Di knew she’d discovered something magical and she wanted to shout it from the mountaintops! 

Di wanted the exhilaration she felt to be accessible to all women, so she developed an event that took the best bits of her adventures (Views! Giggles! Friends! Chocolate! Champagne!) and crammed them into one epic hike along the coastline of Sydney. Coastrek was born!