It’s been one day over a month since I returned home to Toronto. In that time I have landed a super sweet job, an even sweeter apartment (although I cant move in for another month yet), and reconnected with my friends and family. Im slowly rediscovering my hometown and while I miss New Zealand on a daily basis (mostly its just the little things), for the most part Im really happy to be home.
Im sorry I havent written in a while; I was surprised to see I’d not written one …

Sorry for leaving you all on such a down note, the last few weeks have FLOWN by and I am now in Thailand. A quick recap:
My friend Amy flew over from Australia (where she was visiting from the US) and came with me up to the Northland. We went to Whangarei and Tutukaka (on The Perfect Day boat trip to the Poor Knights Islands — fantastic!) and Paihia (where I took the highly recommended AwesomeNZ Cape Reinga day trip) together before going separate ways.
Whangarei & Poor Knights Islands day trip
Paihia …

That’s right, this time last year I was sitting pretty on a 15-hour Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong. Not having left Toronto by plane in over a decade this was pretty spectacular. Sure, my flight left at midnight, but wow there was no way in hell I was going to fall asleep. I was so excited! Even though it was the dead of night, I think my nose left marks on the window from being pressed against it for at least the first hour of the journey as I stared …

My flight from Toronto to Auckland took me through Hong Kong. With my friend Alex living in nearby Taiwan, it made sense that I break up my travel time with a quick visit over to Kaohsiung. I’d never been to Asia before, so even leaving the airport in Hong Kong on my own was a HUGE deal for me. Looking back I laugh at myself for feeling uncertain and nervous about it, as HK is a very efficient city with a fantastic public transport system and more importantly for this …

I did quite a bit of work on the site yesterday. I wasn’t happy with the old layout, finding it too difficult to browse through older entries. This one is far more user-friendly, as not only does it have more stories on the front page, but it actually has links to the monthly and category archives right where you would expect to find them. I especially love the mini-category nav bar with links to my most used categories. I have so much content on this site, but before it was …

Im a little late in writing this up, what with this week being all crazy, New Zealand-style. After my day in HK, I spent the following weekend in Kaohsiung with Alex and his girlfirend Joy. Taiwan really isnt my speed, but I had a great time riding around the city on the back oh a moped (in the rain!), eating all kinds of insanely tasty meals, spending time with a friend I hadnt seen since February, and just generally being somewhere new.
Saturday Alex took me to Cheng Ching Lake, a …

I arrived in Hong Kong this morning at 5am, local time. A little shell-shocked, and more than a little numb, after making my way through customs I had 15 hours to kill before my flight to Kaohsiung. The first thing I did was pay $25CDN for a shower, it was probably the best money I have spent all day. If anyone out there is even considering a long haul flight, budget in the additional expense of a shower afterwards, it totally prepared me to face the very long day ahead …