52/365

My dear mum at Bracegirdles Chocolate Cafe while out celebrating with her and dad. It was such a nice evening to just hang out with the two of them and chat about being home in Adelaide, about the future and the past, our times in Vancouver and what will happen in the next few years in Adelaide. It's moments like these that you really cherish and cement the reasons that kate and I returned to Adelaide.

50/365

The Norwood pool is such a beautiful pool to spend my morning of swimming training. Nestled in the backstreets of Norwood, it is such a nice setting in the eucalypts and makes for a really relaxing way to start the day. I like nothing more than taking some pre soaked museli to munch at the picnic table after my hour or so of swimming, once it is well earned :-)

49/365

Cruising around the Adelaide backstreets near Hutt St. There are some beautiful old cottages, kinda like what Kate and I are looking for. All of the houses on this street had some colonial heritage and made for a really nice pattern when looking down the length of the street.
There really are some beautiful historic parts of Adelaide when you go looking for them.

48/365

This hand signifies changes on the horizon. Not sure where I will end up, but all I know is that I have made a big commitment to change and it is quite exciting. I am anxiously pondering the correct decisions to make, but only time will tell.

47/365

The trusty old d80 has served me so well. It is now time for the old camera to take the back seat. The d80 was a worthy investment and taught me so much about photography, however now the old tech in the sensor and other functionality of the camera body has just been superseded and I made the investment in something a bit grander. I am super excited about what potential the new camera will offer.

46/365

Celebrating my mums birthday at Red Berry Espresso with my wife, mum and grandma :-)
Grandma is a very vibrant character and it was great to have her out for a coffee and a chat. She always insists to buy my coffee :-)
Grandma loves to tell stories and I think we were talking about past times in Europe when I captured this moment of her reminiscing! She had a double shot latte :-)

Dad

I had a great opportunity to take my dad out for a coffee yesterday. It was raining heavily outside, and we had a nice window spot at Red Berry Espresso to chat over a nice espresso. My dad photographs really well, and I captured this nice portrait of him while we were deep in discussion. It was interesting taking the photos as after a while the camera becomes one with you and people start to ignore the camera and just see you, and thats when you get some great natural photographs.

Hong Kong Day 5 Hong Kong Day 6

Finally I am finding the time to post about the final two days of our Hong Kong trip.
Day 5
I think day 5 was my favourite day in Hong Kong. We set out early for a run, and then headed for the MTR after a in room brekky of museli. The plan was to head to the New Territories. We decided to go to Tai Po as we read about some great little markets and a nice temple.
When we arrived after a quick MTR trip, the first thing we noticed was way less tourists. We were the only caucasians around, which was nice. We wandered the streets, checking out market stalls on the way to the Man Mo Yee Tai Temple. The Man Mo Yee Tai temple was probably my favourite experience of the whole trip. We just sat and took in the atmosphere which was very calming. Upon leaving a nice lady came up to me and urged me to hit this big drum 3 times for good luck. It was really nice for someone to involve us.


We wandered the streets a little more, and then headed to Sha Tin to see the Monastery of Ten Thousand Buddhas. This was pretty spectacular however the stairs up to the Monastery were killer. We also saw some nice old buildings with a lot of character and loads of monkeys.


It was getting pretty hot at this stage, we were pretty hungry too, so we headed Mong Kok way to get some food. The Lonely Planet led us on a freaking wild goose chase to a road that just didn't appear to exist, so after some frustration and low glucose level jitters, we headed back to the Home Made Dim-Sum joint that we had eaten at a few days earlier. Once again, amazing Dim Sum, cheap as!
After this we headed back to Tsim Sha Tsui, and our accom at the Hyatt. The afternoon was spent chilling at the pool in the sun. I swam a few laps; the pool was one of those ozone treated pools, so no salt, no chlorine. It was like swimming in a lake.

That evening we decided to spoil ourselves and go to Ozone in the Ritz-Carlton, the highest bar in the world. The view was amazing, and a little bit off putting. Kate ordered a delicious cocktail and I got a craft brew from Italy. It was a strong beer, and 750ml so I managed to make it last a long time, and still ended up with a hangover. Anyways, $60 for two drinks and a few hours later, we headed for the Temple St Night Markets. It was super busy with people and I just had to try some seafood from one of the busy vendors. I got some strange crustaceans that I had never heard of, they were ok, but not much meat. Still the experience was well worth while.

Day 6
Day 6 was a fairly laid back day, preparing for our big flight back to Oz. Firstly, after our coffee run, we milked the late check out and hung out in the room till we were ready to venture out looking for lunch. En route to finding lunch we stumbled across a very cool dragon act with actors dressed as traditional dragons jumping around on top of pillars; it was very cool. We found a nice Chinese restaurant that did amazing roast meat. It sat on a nice public square so lunch was also great for people watching. I got goose and Kate got pork, both were amazing! We then treated ourselves to some delicious little Hong Kong desserts. It appears that Hong Kongers love dessert, and it shows with the amount of dessert places that are open. Each dessert was exquisitely made and tasted like no other dessert I have ever had. My dessert was a black sesame layered mousse, and kates was a similar chestnut layered dessert. We sat on the edge of Victoria Harbour and watched the boats sail by while enjoying them.


Following this we wandered around kowloon, killing time really until out chauffeured vehicle departed to the airport. i bought the biggest carrot I have ever seen for dinner. It was gigantic - I woinder what made it grow that big :-). Our vehicle was already loaded when we got to the Hyatt carpark, and we got a super dirty look when we didn't tip, but I'd already paid $120 USD for a 40min ride which I think is sufficient compensation. Everything went smoothly at the airport and we got all our baggage on the plane with no hassles and only charged the excess baggage fee that we expected. Now the waiting period began, it was about 7pm by the time we cleared customs, and the plane left at 11:20. Surprisingly the time flew by and we were on the plane, headed home finally before we knew it. Only 8.5 hrs, which were sped up with a few movies and zoning to some good trance.

Hong Kong was a cool experience. It was so busy and different to Vancouver so was a bit of a shock to the system. The Hyatt was amazing and we were so glad that we stayed there. It was a really nice way to spend the end of our Honeymoon funds.
Adelaide airport customs went super smooth, and being citizens we were whisked through the e-customs, and didn't have to get our baggage searched, probably the easiest customs experience I've ever had. When we wandered out of customs to see all of our family waiting for us it was like a weight of the past 6 months was finally lifted. We were finally home.

Hong Kong Day 3 and Hong Kong Day 4

Day 3
Today was meant to be a chilled day. We had covered a lot of kms in the last few days so the idea was to take it easy. We started the day searching for a book for Kate and a trip to a Macau restaurant that was nearby for a cheap breakfast, followed with a Portuguese custard tart for dessert - which we took to kowloon park to devour (Macau was settled by Portugal, hence the Portuguese tart craze).

We chilled in Kowloon Park for some time. Being Lunar New Year, people were off work and out in the park enjoying themselves. It was really fun to just people watch. There were lots of family groups picknicking, soaking up the sun and enjoying the festive vibe that was going around. Some students were putting on a dragon show which was amazing, I guess to celebrate Lunar New Year. They ahd a whole lot of drums to which the dragon danced throughout the park. It was so vibrant and really made it feel like celebrations were taking place. At times the dragon would pause so people could line up to get photographed with the dragon for a small donation, I assume the students were raising money for their school or some worthy cause. Otherwise they were just ripping off the silly tourists. Needless to say, I didn't get my photo with the dragon :-).

We moped around, grabbed some dim sum and checked out the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui. We headed to the Victoria Harbour sea wall to check out the festivities, and ended up catching a Star Ferry to Wan Chi for a bit of a stroll, which ended up being a huge stroll on a fruitless mission to find food. This was a stroke of good luck, as when we got back downtown we stumbled across a small Dim Sum place that made great Dim Sum, and was super cheap.

After dinner it was time to check out the Lunar New Year parade which was OK, except for the 6 deep crowd, so we headed to the Hyatt rooftop garden to watch the Victoria Harbour Laser show and the Parade from a distance.
So in the end it was a pretty chilled day, but we still managed to cover a few Kms.
Day 4
Today was slight more eventful. We decided we were sick of the city so we decided to head out to Lantau Island. We figured there would be a bit of hiking and maybe a few less people. We got up nice and early for a run and then headed to the ferry by 10am. It seems Hong Kong is a pretty slow city to get started so we missed the crowd by getting to the ferry by 10.



The ferry ride out was a great way to see the harbour and all parts of the city. We were greeted at Lantau by a very colourful pier and a Croatia-esque feeling town. It was a fun town to explore, and we found a nice little vegan restaurant for lunch which was a sight for sore eyes after all the Chinese. Following lunch we headed out to some trails. To my dismay we found that the trail was paved the whole way, kinda ruining the natural feel of it all, plus it totally smelt like dog turd the whole time so I didn't really dig it at all. After a few hours on the Island we were ready to bail, head back to the Hyatt and chill before the fireworks.
Kate bought herself some Hong Kong gourmet desserts, and I settled for a salad again for dinner. We found an amazing spot to view the fireworks. They were unbelievable. Best firework display I've ever seen. We sat around by the harbour after they finished to let the 300k plus crowd disperse so that we wouldn't have to battle the hordes home.

All in all, it was a pretty good day, we covered a lot of ground and saw some sights that may have been slightly off the worn trail.

Leaving Vancouver, Hong Kong Day 1 and Day 2

Finally I have found some time to write about our Hong Kong Trip. I will also write about our last morning in Vancouver, a very sad morning.
As expected our last night in Vancouver was restless. Sleep didn't come easily due to excitement and a mixed bag of emotions. Our last night in an apartment that has provided us with so many amazing memories.
I watched the clock count up until I could safely get up and walk to Melriches Coffee house and land myself there as the shop opened so that I could get my last Flat White in Canada. The fog was thick and made for an eerie morning. It suited my melancholy mood well. I sat at the window, overlooking Davie St and savored my flat white. I personally think this place makes the best flat white in Vancouver. I pondeder the last 3 years, read the news and then pondered the future and what it would hold for Kate and myself.

I reentered our apartment a hour or so later. It was really just final touches, last bits of packing and then gone. It was a strange feeling dropping our keys through the letter slot for the last time. No way to re-enter what was our home for the last 3 years.
Getting to the airport and checking in our huge amount of baggage went relatively smoothly. Now the waiting game began. Counting down our last three hours on Canadian soil.

Boarding the plane was super exciting. We got bad ass seats. Row 39, right behind the petition to premium economy, and therefore so much legroom to kick out. I know which seats I'll be shooting for next time we fly. We departed Vancouver at 1:30pm on the 27th of January 2013. 11.5 hours later, two delicious airplane meals and a lot of movies later we landed in Hong Kong at about 7:30pm on the 28th. Customs was easy, our bags all arrived and we were whisked off to the Hyatt by our chauffeured mini van.

This night was a bit of a whirlwind due to jet lag. We crashed out pretty early. My sleep was restless, I mean we just came from the other side of the world and my body expected to be up doing things, so at 5 in the morning I got up and hit 45mins on the treadmill watching Australian news. I returned to the room to find Kate stirring, so we slowly got going and ventured out into the new world of Hong Kong.
Day 1
Day one was epic. We walked so far and saw so much. I am going to try and make it as succinct as possible. After leaving the Hyatt a coffee was #1 priority. I have been operating on a few coffees daily for the last 3 years, it is not right to expect me to start the day without one. I was devistated to discover that at that time of the morning there is nothing open, except Starbucks. So I had to swallow my pride and settled for brewed coffee after a lot of bitching and complaining. I promise I won't do it again. To be honest, the brewed coffee was OK.
We then found a little Chinese restaurant to get brekky at. It was about the only place open so it kinda was chosen by default. Over breakfast we decided to head to Hong Kong Island for the day. It was nice and clear so we figured it would be a great day to see the Peak.

We caught a Star Ferry to the Central pier, and from here walked up through the financial district, the Botanic Gardens where we saw a super cute Orangutan baby, and the suburbs until we got to the Peak Tram. The view from the Peak was exactly what you would expect it to be from the millions of photos online. It was good to see, but full of annoying tourists so we bailed pretty quickly.

Next stop was a massive walk from the Peak tram over to Wan Chi to check out a bunch of cool streets, have lunch and check the crazy Wan Chi wet markets. This was eye opening. I think if you eat meat in Hong Kong, you don't really want to think about where your meat came from, as I'm sure they don't follow any animal ethics guidelines. It was amazing to spectate and not feel like I had to do my weekly shopping here. Funniest thing was Kate seeing an eel escape from a bucket and proceed to slide across a freaking busy side walk, then try to bite someone just as it was caught and whisked back into the same bucket.

The rest of the afternoon was a lot of walking down to Causeway bay, by which point we were totally pooched, so we chilled in Victoria Park for a brief while, then bailed to the MTR subway system that whisked us right home for about $1 CAD. Dinner was at this rad little noodle joint right over from the Hyatt. Dinner for two for less than $10 CAD. Right on!
Day 2
Day 2 started with a nice run along the Victoria Harbour running trail followed by some fresh fruit for brekky. Today we decided to head out to the Mong Kok flower markets, goldfish markets, bird garden and Temple ST Night Market. This involved a lot of walking, but we got to see a lot of amazing stuff along the way. However we started with another Starbucks Coffee..sigh..in Kowloon Park.
I could not believe how populated Mong Kok was. Those shitty high rise apartment buildings. Washing hanging out the window. Cables going everywhere. It must be so hot and cramped living there with so many other people around.

Anyways, the flower markets were the first stop, and with Lunar New Year coming up, they were full of people and flowers. Apparently the days before Lunar New Year are the markets busiest of the year, so it was awesome to see all the colours. Following this we headed to the Bird Garden which was interesting. Pretty much a bunch of bird enthusiasts hang out to compare and buy birds. Kinda like a comic card convention for birds. Not my idea of a fun filled weekend, but it was cool to see.


Following this we found a mad Dim Sum place, ate till we were full and only spent $15 each. Favs on the menu were these snow buns. A sweet fried bun, with the most delicious pork filling. A crazy mix of flavours like I had never had before.
We departed this zone of Mong Kok, fuelled and ready to deal with the hordes of people. The rest of the day comprised of markets which were pretty cool, but no need to explain them all here. We arrived back in Kowloon later in the afternoon, totally thrashed and laughing as today was meant to be a "take it easy day".
The day ended with a healthy meal made from random salad ingredients bought from a supermarket. I was so sick of greasy asian food by this point and needed something green.
...to be cont. This is taking a while.

40/365

                                                
My lovely mum. It has been so good to get back to Adelaide to hang out with the family. I missed them a lot and it has been so good to hang out in person again. Skype conversations are amazing, but they grow old pretty quick, especially when you are a bit homesick.
I am definitely lucky to have the supportive parents that I have been blessed with.

35/365

Our first day back in Adelaide. My mind is still spinning from trying to organise everything that we need to get done, but that aside, it was such an enjoyable day. The whole family was at the airport waiting, the customs guard was super nice and we had no issues with baggage or massive line ups.
I am so stoked for travel to be over and done with for the time being.
The day was spent unpacking and catching up with family. It will be good when we finally find our own place so we can fully unpack, but for the moment it is so nice being back at home. The power was out at Kates parents from a massive wind storm the night before, and hence everything in the fridge needed eating. The last time we were in this back yard was for our wedding, so it was really nice to have dinner out on the patio.
The hills hoist is a classic Australian icon, and with the beautiful dappled pattern of the afternoon sun shining through the leaves, I felt it was a photo that very well summed up the essence of the evening.

34/365

Leaving Hong Kong, en route to the airport in our own private Limo - van. At this point I am stressing about the huge amount of luggage we have and hoping we have very small excess baggage fees, and pondering what the future holds for us back in Adelaide. Overall Kate and I are really excited to get home. In the end it cost what we expected, and we breezed through check in and customs.
A relatively long wait prevailed at the airport, however it did fly by, probably because we were so excited and I had an awesome book to read - "The Kite Runner".
Boarding the airplane back to Adelaide was an amazing experience, finally the last leg of our homeward journey is upon us, only 8.5 hours, a few movies and some delicious plane food down the track.

33/365

Today we ventured out into the Outer Territories. I wanted to head to Tai Po as the town sounded really interesting and the markets sounded like they would be fun to wander around. It was nice to be the only westerners around, this town did not feel anywhere near as touristy as downtown. The people were really nice and we received a few smiles our way.
The most memorable part of the day was visiting Man mo Yee Tai temple. The temples are busy places over the Lunar New Year with lots of worshipers making offerings to their gods. Kate and I just sat in the temple for a while, taking in the serene environment. It was so relaxing and peaceful, a great place to relax and reflect.
After Kate and I had been sitting for a while, the other worshipers in the temple realised we were not just there to snap a few photos and leave, so when we went to walk out, one very nice lady came up to me and in broken English, told me I should hit this big drum 3 times for good luck. The drum reverberated throughout the whole temple. It was a very wholesome moment and one of my favourite of the whole trip.

32/365

February the first. Today we headed out to Lantau Island to get away from the crowds. It was different. The island has a "quaint" / slummy little fishing village with some great food and cool stairwells and roads that run up the side of the hilly shoreline, somewhat reminding me of a ghetto version of Split, Croatia, in which they had decided to abandon all forms of hygiene and manners.
Anyways, the island was fun and it was good to avoid the crowds for the morning.
Afterwards we headed back to Kowloon so we could catch the Chinese New Year fireworks on Victoria Harbour. En route to our hotel I snapped this picture while waiting to cross Canton Road. I loved the vibrance of all the people in the shot. Everyone is posed differently, wearing different clothes, and I feel the photo really sums up the mixed bag of residents in Hong Kong and the attitude that they expel.

31/365

Today was the Lunar Chinese New Year. This meant that not much was open, but we still managed to find some fun stuff to do and some ok food to eat.
While walking around Kowloon Park, we saw a group of students playing drums and animating this large dragon puppet. It was super cool to see the dragon weave throughout the crowds of people.

30/365

Today we did an epic walking tour of Kowloon. Starting in Mong Kok, we wandered the many markets the whole way back down to Tsim Tsa Shui. There were bird markets, goldfish markets, flower markets, clothing markets and the Temple Street Markets. It was such a vibrant and bustling day.
While out at the flower markets we headed to a Dim Sum restaurant that we found inadvertently because the actual restaurant we wanted to go to was closed.
Anyways this place did outstanding dim sum. The highlights were a mango jelly roll and a pork bun called a snow bun or something like that. It was amazing. A mix of sweet and savoury like I have never had before. The bun was almost like a sweet coconut egg pastry, with a bbq pork bun style filling. Amazing!
That aside, on the huge walk we passed Tin Hau Temple. Inside there were these amazing spiral insence sticks that were burning away, filling the air with the most calming incense aroma. They made for an amazing pattern especially with the sun shining brightly through the spirals. I felt this summed up one of the most beautiful things we saw today, and makes for a rather interesting still life photograph.

29/365

Wan Chai Markets. What an amazing vibrant space. I loved walking around these markets. The streets were teeming with people madly rushing around seeking bargains or purchasing fresh produce.
The wet markets were unreal, I haven't seen anything like it since the Tokyo Fish Markets almost 10 years ago. So much fresh seafood, and such inhumanely treated fish. An eye opener to see, but I was glad to be spectating and not consuming. Kate saw an eel escape from a bucket, slide across a ridiculously busy side walk and try to bite someone before being scooped back into the bucket.
The meat stands had large portions of meat being butchered right there for you, thankfully those animals didn't start alive.
Coming up to the Chinese New Year there is loads of citrus available - not sure if this is all the time, or just at this time of year, but anyways, there is a lot of it available. Cumquats, mandarin, orange and these huge mandarin looking citrus that I just had to try. Way bigger than a soft ball! Anyways, it was delicious, just like someone crossed cumquat, grape fruit and mandarin.
The stall pictured here is one of the many roasted meat stalls. Vibrant, colourful and smelling amazing.

28/365

Checking into the Hyatt late, not leaving much time for a fantastic photo of the day. The entrance foyer to level 14.
We had a long flight, 13 hrs, from Vancouver, finally landing in Hong Kong at about 7pm, the next day. This made my photo of the day a bit difficult as we crossed the international date line, all of the 28th of Jan was spent in a plane, except for the last few hours, which were spent feeling jet lagged, commuting via cab to The Hyatt and then checking in and zonking out. I quickly snapped this photo of the entrance foyer to our floor. The hotel is rad and very fancy.
Better photo to come tomorrow I promise.

27/365

Waiting at the airport - our spare Canadian cash was used to buy some fortune cookies. It was funny when we opened the first fortune cookie, as we got the fortune "Friends long absent are coming back to you". This seemed so fitting as we sat together in Vancouver airport, feeling a bit sad that we were leaving Canada, but also excited to be returning home to see family and friends.
I composed this photo of a few things to remind us of our last day in Canada. Spare change, ski magazines to kill time and the good fortune message.