After two and a half years in New York, she moved to Los Angeles to live with her brother.

It was here that she saw fame and stardom first-hand. Her brother, Brandon, was plucked from virtual obscurity to don the famed red cape as Superman in the blockbuster "Superman Returns."

Having the "man of steel" as a brother, Routh says has been both surreal and exciting.

"It is wonderful, he's an incredible man and going through the process of his basically overnight stardom was big," she says. "I never thought of him as anything other than my little brother but he is a wonderful person to look up to and he has always been sort of the mediator of the family.

"It's a whole other world to experience. You meet people you never thought you would meet, like Mike Tyson or getting a phone call and talking to Orlando Bloom. Things happen that you would never fathom happening but when they do, you realize that they (celebrities) are just regular people, too."

Routh's other experience of fame came from working in restaurants in LA that were frequented by Hollywood stars. She says far from the glare of the spotlight most celebrities "wanted to eat their pumpkin pancake, drink their coffee and have a regular chat."

Routh gained a foothold in the notoriously tough LA music scene, drawing a regular following to her gigs.

It was while Routh was working at a youth hostel that she met her husband-to-be, Steven.

After six months the couple were married in Las Vegas.

"My ring was US$2.50 from a costume shop on Hollywood Boulevard and he really didn't propose - we were already basically married at that point," she says.

The couple spent four years in LA before deciding to strap on a backpack and start traveling.

They headed to the sleepy fishing village of Leeman in Western Australia where Steven's parents run a caravan park.

While living in Leeman, she experienced the quintessential Western Australian coastal life, went fishing and even worked in a roadhouse.

"I made the best steak burger you have ever had," she jokes when describing her three months in Western Australia. "I did my amateur crayfishing, I caught a shark and I would get the biggest fish on the boat even though I was the only girl. It was great fun."