In 2003, I spent a year living in Byron Bay, Australia. I had a student visa as I was taking a 9-month yoga teacher training course with Yoga Arts. I had not been back to Australia since then, so it was an incredible treat to spend a few days in Byron Bay recently.

It’s amazing how much we forget and how revisiting a place triggers memories. I’d say that the same happens with photographs. They have the power to elicit memories and details that we store in the back of our brains. Walking down Johnson street down to the beach, all sorts of memories resurfaced and it was incredibly inspiring to see this beautiful place where I use to live.

I am thinking that a trip to Australia is not complete without the sighting of at least one of their crazy indigenous marsupials. I was taken a much needed break from all the stairs on the path along Byron Bay’s waterfront in the Arakwal National Park when I heard a stirring to my left. It was totally serendipitous to stop where I did, right next to a wallaby!

This is the view as you walk down to the main beach in Byron Bay first thing the morning. The headlands, topped with the Byron Bay lighthouse, are part of what makes this place so incredibly scenic.

A morning walk along the beach and around the headlands leads me to the Easternmost point of Australia.

I am normally annoyed by graffiti. But I quite liked this drawing in the public bathrooms across the street from Fundies!

I’ve decided that it’s good to have a few loooong term projects. One is a collection of photos of dogs from around the world. Say hello to this Aussie terrier.

The view of Tallows Beach from the light house.

Fresh juice + Good design + Red = Leigh Loves

Ahhhh… New Zealand! I feel like I know so little about you. I totally ended up here on a whim, purchasing a last minute ticket from Australia to New Zealand about a month ago when I realized I could fly here for less than $250 round trip. I practically played “pin the plane on New Zealand” and picked Christchurch on a whim as a base for 4.5 days.

Eager to explore the South Island, I booked a trip to explore Banks Peninsula and the town of Akaroa. Banks Peninsula was formed millions of years ago by three huge volcanic eruptions. The result is a landmass with hundreds of fingerling bays and indented coastline.

The township of Akaroa was much sleepier than I’d imagined. Perhaps that is because whale watching, swimming with the dolphins, kayaking and any other water sport if very popular here, thus everyone was out on the water. Regardless, it was a cute spot to wander for a few hours and enjoy a book by the seaside.

This is a view over the Banks Peninsula and in one of those bays is the town of Akaroa.

The streets are dotted with cute little cottages and colorful front gardens.

Take a breath, stop for a while, read a book under this tree.

Who doesn’t love a crazy pink car?

I have other photos I took in Sydney on my one day power tour there last week, but this one pretty much sums it up…

1) It was a super gorgeous, hot and sunny day.

and

2) I did mostly touristy things such as: the Opera House, tinkering around the super cute stores and cafes at The Rocks, and shopping on George Street.

I also took the ferry to Manly beach and ate a “salad sandwich” beachside. Salad sandwiches are one of the things I’ve missed most about Australia. It’s a vege sandwich, yes… simple…no big deal, BUT! It has beets on it. Sounds gross, I know,  but they are delicious on a sandwich. They even put them on there burgers here, so this isn’t just a vegetarian thing.When I get around to making an international cookbook, this will definitely be in there!

I was only in Sydney for a day as I have turned this two week trip to Australia to photograph the gorgeous Katie’s wedding next weekend into a power sight-seeing trip. I can’t wait to get to Newcastle to see Katie and her fiancee Nick, but I’ve got a couple more stops to go…

When booking my ticket to Sydney last August, I purposefully decided to buy the one that had a 15 hour layover in Hong Kong coming and going, not because it was the cheapest, but because I love Asian stop-overs on long distance flights. Or rather, I love Asia.

I’d been to Hong Kong once before, en-route Bangkok back to the States and I knew it was an easy immigration (ie: no advanced visa needed) and a relatively quick train ride into the heart of the city, thus I was sold.

Unfortunately, my layover occurred mostly in the overnight hours, 7pm-10am, so I was a bit limited on how much of Hong Kong I could enjoy before it got too late for a girl with a camera to be trolling the streets safely. Thus, many of these photos are pretty tame and from around a mall and hotel area I visited. But they’ll give you a little insight into the very Chinese, yet Anglicized, Hong Kong.

I found it funny that seemingly EVERYTHING has a label with how often it is sanitized. The elevator buttons- every two hours. Bathrooms-constantly. They take pride in their stickers and public service announcements warning of H1N1 and the like.

High rises and clean architecture has been all I’ve seen so far.

Taxis outside of the W Hong Kong Hotel. They look a lot like the taxis in Japan.

Eat this, not that: I found this interestingly flavored bread and decided to pass on it. Bacon and Squid Ink? Hmmm?