With 12 hours to spare between flights (I was headed to Taiwan, a wee side trip on my way to New Zealand), I braved the amazingly efficient public transit and wandered about the streets of Hong Kong for a day. This was my very first taste of Asia, and I didn’t know what to expect. I found it very easy to navigate (all of the subways and most of the streets have English on them), crowded, but exhilarating. I was in Asia!

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Fallen Buddha, Wat Phra Mahathat (Thailand)

The photo was taken at Wat Phra Mahathat in Ayutthaya, Thailand. A former capital city, it was ransacked by the Burmese several hundred years ago. As the invaders laid siege to the city, they destroyed as many Buddha statues and temples as possible. This one, for some reason, was left where it lay at the root of a tree which in the intervening years has grown itself around it. I like to think that the tree is nestling the Buddha, offering both comfort and protection.

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Being in Kaohsiung was interesting, but I can see how if you dont speak or read Chinese being there can be exhausting. It is not like Hong Kong where English is everywhere and you can move about town easily and not worry about starving or getting lost . I definitely would like to go back to Taiwan some day (maybe when it’s less prone to raining) and explore a bit  of the island, but I would want to either convince a Mandarin-speaking friend to come with me, or better yet, take a basic travellers’ Chinese course before arriving (something I want to do for my eventual trip to mainland China anyway!).

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1. Australia While living in New Zealand, I popped over to Melbourne...

I was super excited about going to Australia; not only was I getting to see another country but it had been ages since I’d seen Stephanie. Plus, my good friend Alex was flying down from Kaohsiung Taiwan for the festival. We were joined by Steph’s friend Tim, a fellow Torontonian expat, and voila! Canadians Down Under, hurrah! Since Stephanie still had work to do, Alex and I spent time wandering about Melbourne during the worst heat wave in a century. 40+C in the shade? Let’s go sightseeing! Yes, we walked for hours and hours in that intense heat, occasionally taking refuge in museums, shops and on at least one occasion, bars. The Botanical Gardens were lovely (including a rather psychedelic children’s section), and we were mystified by the giant sculpture of The Angel alongside the banks of the Yarra.

Rainbow Serpent was and wasn’t what I was expecting. Up until then, the largest festival Id been to was Quebec’s Eclipse Festival which tops out at around 2 or 3 thousand people. RS had 13000 that first year, give or take a few. It was MASSIVE. I loved the little shopping village, and the winding paths made of the vendors where you didn’t know where you would end up next. The stages were massive, but I was disappointed in the complete and utter lack of black-light and UV reactive art. Although psytrance was on the lineup, it just wasn’t that kind of festival. It still was heaps of fun, and the Saturday afternoon on the dancefloor was one of the best times EVER! Plus? Real, live, wild kanagaroos were spotted from my campsite on the Sunday night. At first Stephanie thought perhaps they were wallabees, as roos tend to be more elusive, but no, it was an entire mob of the hoppity beasties: I counted 15 before they moved too far away to be distinguishable. Choice!

When I returned to Auckland from my trans-Tasman jaunt, the lovely lady at New Zealand Immigration mistakenly reissued a work permit in my passport, legally extending my permit an extra three months. With this gift in hand, I decided to remain in New Zealand until March 2010 so that I could a) stay in New Zealand an extra three months, and b) go to my friends Ash and Elisa’s wedding at the end of February. This extra time also meant I could go back to Australia, and back to Rainbow Serpent with Stephanie. This time my friend Katherine came with me, adding a whole other level of adventure to the trip. In addition to taking part in Rainbow Serpents very first Burning Man-style theme camp (The Nargile Lounge), Kat and I also spent a few days driving along the Great Ocean Road. Long heralded as one of the most scenic highways in the world, our recent West Coast (of NZ) road trip only weeks before overshadowed the GRO. Not that it wasnt beautiful, because it was, but because, well, New Zealand was just more so (sorry Aussies, but Kat and I are jaded on this I suspect!)

I dearly wish I could have spent more time in Australia, Melbourne is just one wee bit of a varied country. Im hoping one day to go back and spend a month or two lazily moving around the outback, surfing, taking train rides. I’ve friends in Perth Id love to see again, and well, it’s just such a foreign world to me that I cant help but want to explore it more. It will be a while till I get back down to that neck of the world though, sadly, but its there  on my list.

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1. New Zealand While I lived in New Zealand (November 2008 – February...
2. Kaohsiung, Taiwan When I purchased my ticket to New Zealand, I learned...

My first week in NZ

My friends Ash and Elisa met me at the airport at the completely uncivilized hour of 7am, took me back to theirs for a quick bite to eat and a shower. Elisa promptly took me on a shopping trip to buy jandals, then to her favourite beach, Karekare, on the west coast just outside of Auckland. Other photos from this set include drinking wine on a million dollar yacht two days after arriving (it belonged to a friend of one of her coworkers), and the obligatory visit to Mt Eden, one of Auckland’s 50+ volcanoes.

Tawhranui Beach

This was my first trip outside of Auckland. Ash and Elisa took me to this amazing beach about an hour and a half north of Auckland. While it was really still too cold to go in the water (being early November it was still late spring), Ash went in for a dip while E and I stayed on shore.

Napier/Hawke’s Bay, New Year holiday 2008

Right after Christmas, Ash, Elisa, their friends Dave and Donna (not a couple, but couple figure out how to word this otherwise, ha!) and I went on a mini-break to Napier to visit Elisa’s family for New Year’s. My this point I had been in NZ for two months and for whatever lame reason I’d not actually left Auckland yet, so I was raring to go. The drive took us about five hours and took us through Matamata, the town near where Hobbiton was filed in Lord of The Rings. Napier is the Art Deco capital of the world, thanks to being nearly destroyed in an earthquake and being intentionally rebuilt in that style in the 1930s. I absolutely LOVED this trip, and wished I could have returned to all of the places we visited, Te Mata peak (the dry, rolling hills) especially.

Wellington

In late January I decided it was time to leave Auckland, and Wellington called my name loud and clear. Of all the things that happened to me while I was in Godzone, not being able to live or find work in this city is my greatest regret. I fell head over heels in love with Welly, and cried my eyes out when I realized that I had to leave. I picked a really bad time to move to New Zealand, the country was being rocked by the recession and expat Kiwis were flocking home from overseas. Companies simply were not hiring foreigners, I couldn’t even find work at a grocery store. Eventually I swallowed my pride and moved to Nelson where I spent three weeks working in a hostel in exchange for accommodation, but I would return to Wellington at least three more times. I still hope that one day I can live here.

Marlborough Sounds

I left Wellington on a cold and rainy day on one of the Cook Straight Ferries. My immune system picked this stressful time to wallop me with what I’m pretty sure was H1N1 (Id been living in a hostel in Wellington, surrounded by backpackers. NZ was being hit pretty hard with this flu around then as well, if I recall), leaving me exhausted, feverish and passed out on a bench on one of the lower decks. The crossing takes around four hours, most of which is in open water between New Zealand’s two main islands. After a 2-3 hour nap, I went above deck and was astonished at the change in weather. As we entered the Marlborough Sounds, the sky was a brilliant blue, the sun was shining and the temperature was easily 10 degrees warmer than where we’d left. This was the first time I’d left the North Island and suddenly everything began to look up. Yes, I was still really sick, and sure I was broke broke broke and on my way to go clean toilets and dorm rooms, but I began to feel relief, and felt that I’d made the right decision to leave Wellington, regardless how much it upset me to do so.

Cable Bay

While living in Nelson, I made contact with a group of CouchSurfers in Christchurch when I’d flown down there for a job interview. Another Torontonian I knew had moved there and was letting me stay with her while I had my meetings, and she had taken me to a CS house party. One of the women I met here (who ended up being my flatmate many months later, Naiana), invited me on a day trip to Cable Bay when she and her friends came up to Nelson for Easter Break.

Queenstown

Having gotten the job Id interviewed for in Christchurch, I decided to splash out on my last week of freedom with a week-long road trip to Queenstown and back. This was the first time in a long while Id not been worried about money or where I was going to live and it was marvellous. While I was a little sad at not having the freedom to move around like a backpacker any more, I loved the stability a regular paycheque did on my sanity and bank account. Even though I arrived in QT at the very end of the summer tourist season, and most of the activities I wanted to do were shut for the year, I had a blast. I made friends with an Englishman, Dorian, on the bus down from Mt Cook and we spent the week exploring Queenstown and hiking the nearby hills. Speaking of hills, Queenstown is surrounded by an amazing mountain range, The Remarkables, which permenantly installed a love of mountains in my life. Until going to the South Island, Id never seen a mountain let alone a mountain RANGE. I was beside myself with glee!

Milford Road and Sound

While Queenstown is reknowned for its adventure thrills, the main reason I wanted to go there was to take the day trip to Milford Sound. One of NZ’s UNESCO World Heritage sites, this is the number one thing to do in the country, and for good reason! I dont think I have ever been anywhere as amazing or beautiful as Milford Sound. Massive escarpments, waterfalls, forests wildlife, rivers, lakes, plains, just everything all crammed into one very sacred corner of the country. If you go to NZ and only see one thing, see this.

Lake Tekapo and Southern Alps

The journey to Queenstown from Christchurch has a natural stop at Lake Tekapo, and the Church of the Good Shepherd. The lake itself is glacial, its colour coming from the silica in the water that runs down from a nearby mountain glacier. I was thrilled that this early in the season the nearby hills were covered in snow, giving me many amazing photo opportunities! The shots of the mountains are of the Southern Alps just outside of Mt Cook National Park. I’d gone to the Park in hopes of seeing Aoraki/Mt Cook, but the weather prevented me from seeing as much as my hand in front of my face. The day I left, the clouds lifted slightly to reveal the mountains that had been surrounding us the entire time. Id never seen a mountain before this moment, I think I may have cried.

Sunrise on Waikuku Beach

Jumping ahead several months, my new friends Katherine, Nicky and I decided to get up and photograph the sunrise on a beach about an hour outside of Christchurch. Being early spring, the weather was cold, but the beach itself was absolutely pristine. Being in New Zealand definitely spoiled me in terms of what I expect from coastlines, something I didn’t appreciate until I was in Thailand and saw how poorly tourists treat the environment there (seriously, on Koh Tao the entire beachfront was like a giant ashtray). Several of the best photographs I have ever taken were shot on this morning.

Sumner and Taylor’s Mistake, Christchurch

By now, Katherine and I had become fast friends, often getting out and about with our cameras. Never having been to the surf-side Christchurch suburb of Sumner, we headed out there on one of the nicest days I think we had that Spring.

West Coast Road Trop — Castle Rock

Boxing Day 2009 Kat and I set out on a simply fantastic 10-day road trip up along the West Coast of the South Island. Our first stop was Castle Rock, about an hour or so out of Christchurch. The boulders here are famed with with the rock climbing set, and for good reason as these things were gigantic! What made them seem completely magical is that the farmland that surrounds them is pretty flat; it’s as though a giant tossed his marbles away here and forgot about them.

West Coast Road Trop — Fox Glacier Helicoptor Tour

The absolute highlight of our trip! Prior to arriving in Fox, we’d stopped in Franz Josef where I’d wanted to do one of the glacier heli-hikes. As is often the case with the mountains in New Zealand (and perhaps elsewhere, I don’t know), the weather was rainy and visibility poor. There was no way we’d be able to take a helicopter trip up into the mountains, and I didnt want to spend four hours trekking up a glacier in the rain, so we thought we’d try our luck in Fox. Thankfully we lucked out as the day we had out flight the weather cleared up enough for us to lift off, and wow. Hello Mountains!! Where I’d been disappointed at not seeing Mt Cook almost a year earlier, now he was there in all his magestic glory, so close I felt I could reach out and give him a big old alpine hug. The helicopter landed on top of the glacier and we were able to get out and take photos and marvel at how warm it was up there. Simply brilliant.

West Coast Road Trip — Karamea and the Heaphy Track

Next up on our tour was to head inland to one of Katherine’s favourite parts of the country, Karamea. Our plan here had been to go caving and river kayaking, but the recent rains meant that the rivers were too swollen and dangerous. In fact, it had been raining so much that we took an unplanned rest day at the lodge we were in, as it was simply too inclement to do anything outside. While it was a little dear to spend $40 a bottle on wine (and we had more than one…), we had nothing else to do but spend the day going through our photos and drinking ice cold Kiwi sauv blanc. Not a terrible way to spend the day at all, in hindsight! The next day we did manage to go caving and it was amazing. Our guide took us through a part of the protected rainforest then into the Oparara Honeycomb Caves. Caving in NZ is not like the caving experience I had in Texas. There are no handrails, and no spotlights. Just you, a head lamp and the bare rock. It was pretty awesome.

On our way back to the coast we stopped at the start of the Heaphy Track, one of New Zealand’s famed Great Walks. We had gone in search of the Nikau Palm Grove we knew was there, but ended up having to leave before finding it as the rains were just too insistent (we were in a rain forest, after all!).

West Coast Road Trip — Buller Gorge

I cant really recall at which point in our trip we went through here, but it was really lovely and I kept asking Katherine to stop the car so we could get out and take photos of all of the rainbows. Actually, now that I think about it this was on the way to Abel Tasman, although I think the sheep are from elsewhere, maybe up near Farewell Spit.

West Coast Road Trip — Abel Tasman Park

By now we had reached the top of the South Island and New Year’s Eve. For almost as long as I’d been in NZ, I’d wanted to go kayaking in Abel Tasman Park, and I was super excited by this part of the trip. Katherine was keen to catch up with friends on the yacht we’d be spending the night on, so we parted ways early that morning with plans to meet up in the park later on. I was a bit skeptical about our plans to be honest, as I had a 3 hour kayak trip, followed by a 3+ hour solo hike (which was exhilarating!) through the Park to reach the beach where Id be met by someone from the yacht… all without cell service. I definitely think that this was one of those days that forced me to just go with it and trust that it will all work out (although I do recall that at the time I was pretty stressy about it). My biggest regret about how New Year’s played out is that I become the ocean’s bitch once I set foot on anything larger than a dinghy. I was absolutely ROCKED by the yacht and ended up falling asleep around 11pm thanks to both fatigue and the anti-seasickness medication I was taking, completely missing the New Years fun and being a total drag on the festivities.

West Coast Road Trip — Marlborough Sounds

A few days later, and much recovered from the seasickness the crossing from Abel Tasman to Nelson inflicted upon me, we drove up to Picton. We were going horsetrekking in the Marlborough Sounds and even though the weather sucked (I wont lie), I was looking forward to this activity. There’s something romantic about being on a horse, and who wouldn’t love a private tour through the Sounds? Yeah. It turned out I didn’t, not so much. I’ve come to realize that there are some things Im just not comfortable doing, and riding animals is one of them. Still, the day was very interesting, and I loved getting out and seeing the Sounds from a different perspective (even though I was terrified the horse was going to run off with me at any given moment).

Kiwiburn

The road trip over, we headed back to Christchurch were I had two weeks left of work before finishing for good. I flew over to Australia to visit my friend Stephanie and go to Rainbow Serpent (Kat came with too), where I met a couple of Americans who invited me to go to Kiwiburn with them back in New Zealand. These lovely ladies worked for Burning Man LLC, the business that runs and supports the annual Burning Man Festival in the USA. They were going to Kiwiburn for the first time, and I was going with them. Again? AWESOME.

North Island Tiki Tour — Lake Taupo

With less than a month left before leaving New Zealand, I wanted to see as much of the North Island as possible. When I’d lived in Auckland I didn’t take advantage of being in a new country, something I really regretted. I was too cautious, not wanting to spend money I didn’t really have without a job lined up. In hindsight, I should have just gone for it as things ALWAYS WORK OUT. Immediately following Kiwiburn I went to Lake Taupo to see the Maori rock carvings. While interesting to see, these aren’t ancient in any way, having been carved in recent years by local Maori. Having twisted my ankle rather badly the week before, and still hobbling around, I opted to go for the lazy day cruise out to the rocks instead of kayaking (which would have been awkward for my ankle), but it was still nice to check off another place off of my list of places to visit.

North Island Tiki Tour — Rotorua

Rotorua is both the thermal capital of New Zealand, and the seat of Maori culture. Infamous for smelling of sulphur (which I didnt find too bad at all, honestly!), Rotorua has geyers, thermal vents and bubbling pits of mud all over the place. While walking along the beach I nearly stepped in a small vent, you have got to watch where you’re going in this place! I took a day trip out to Wai o Tapu thermal park, and highly recommend that if you take this trip, that you add on a visit to the Waimangu Volcanic Valley (which I didnt do) as well as you will finish at Wai o Tapu a lot quicker than expected thanks to the unfortunately short bus pick up/drop off times

North Island Tiki Tour — Tutukaka

Another American friend I met while in Australia, Amy, flew over to NZ to join me on the next part of my trip. We travelled together to Whangarei and took the Perfect Day snorkelling trip to Poor Knights Islands from Tutukaka. Sadly, my point and shoot camera died on this trip so there aren’t many photos, but it was gorgeous out there. This is another in my top five things to do or see in NZ.

North Island Tiki Tour — The Far North

From Whangarei we took the bus up to Piha, the legendary surfing town in the Far North. Id been wanting to learn to surf for ages, and thought that perhaps here at last Id get the chance. Sadly, no. Most of the surf schools were either out of town and not having a car meant I had no way to get there (shuttles were non-existent), or were booked solid for the time I was in town. No worries though, as this place was super chill and lovely; I spent a few days just cooling my heels here doing not much of anything. One thing I did do though, and is another Top Five item, is the 90-mile beach/Cape Reinga day trip. Sweet baby jeebus, they could not pack more into that day if they tried. We drove along the beach for an hour at top speeds, went sand boarding down giant dunes (I felt like a Fremen climbing up them!), then went to the very tippy top of the country, where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean, then went to giant Kauri forest. Top notch day, and completely exhausting.