42 DEGREES SOUTH

Earlier in October, I took a short trip to the bracing south, on my first ever trip to Tasmania. Despite the inclement weather that always takes some getting used to after too long in Darwin, it was a wonderful relief to get away from the soupy hot buildup of the north. With five days up my sleeve I tackled the usual tourist haunts of Salamanca, MONA, the botanic gardens, Mt. Wellington, Richmond and Runnymede, as well as a few lesser known locales such as the Sandy Bay Twilight Markets. However the main purpose of my holiday was seeing if Hobart was a good fit as a new home town.

ROAD TRIPPING THE BARKLY

In a rare turn of events I was let out of the office last week for a work related trip down to the wide open spaces of the Territory's Barkly Tablelands region. It's been an embarrassing number of years since I've been down this way.

THE PINOT GRIS FILES - NORTH ISLAND

And now onto the bit of Aotearoa that I know a lot better. I decided to visit one of the spots I've neglected in my last couple of visits - the geologically hyperactive region around Rotorua (known mostly to my childhood self as 'that town that smells like rotten eggs').

THE PINOT GRIS FILES - SOUTH ISLAND

For the third time in a year I found myself stepping onto New Zealand soil, though via a different port of entry for once. The flight into Queenstown airport is said to be one of the prettiest landings you'll experience and although my early autumn arrival meant the Southern Alps were lacking most of their snowy caps, I'd have to agree that it beats most urban sprawl introductions to a new land.

GREEN TRAVEL

I've got another trip over the Tasman coming up in a couple of weeks. Every time I click 'confirm and pay' during online checkout, my eco-conscience has a little wobble. No matter how hard I try to manage my carbon footprint, I often make certain lifestyle choices that make me wonder if a handful of large footprint actions aren't blowing my credentials out of the water. For me, this mostly boils down to driving a car to work, air travel and mostly unavoidable food miles.

SOUTHERN SHORES

Happy 2015!

I saw in this new year in proper holiday mode. As expected, by the time Christmas rolled around I'd had about as much of the endless buildup heat as I could take, so I gave myself a little break and headed down to Melbourne to tick another experience off my personal bucket-list - driving the Great Ocean Road.

A LITTLE MORE AOTEAROA

A few more snaps from my recent holiday, which - after Hawke's Bay - included a little time in Wellington (where I watched 'What We Do In The Shadows' in what must be the world's best cinema (The Embassy, if you're ever in Boot-town, schedule a visit)

HIATUS

Travel and work have consumed most of the last few months and I've struggled to find the headspace to set aside any time in my life for more writing as there's been a lot of demands on my creative juices at work of late, so to summarise;

DOWN THE TRACK

I don't come down here nearly often enough.

Litchfield National Park is about 100km south of the city, just past the small township of Batchelor. I've been coming here for about as long as I've had a car (and once even came close to a nasty accident during the freewheeling days of my youth when I decided my tiny tinny car and lack of driving experience could totally handle a bit of off-road adventuring). It's a prime spot for a little weekend getaway or daytrip.

RETURN

Down to earth with a bump.
My three-week quasi-offline Indian summeresque trip over the Tasman was done and dusted a good couple of weeks ago now, and mostly I've been sitting around wondering what to do with myself ever since getting back. Whether it's a case of the post holiday blues, a culmination of a work life/home life slump or the simple fact that the month before the fun, festivities and weather of the dry season properly kick in is a notoriously frustrating time for this part of the world (or all three, it's currently up for discussion...) In the meantime I'll get on with some sweet imagery and nostalgic reminiscence...

CALIFORNIA LOVE

Leaving SF via an icon

Once I was done and dusted from Burning Man, I decided to take a little tour up the northern Californian coast and check out the rugged Pacific views. Last time I came over for the festival, I took a short solo tour through Yosemite (which this year suffered a terrible spate of wildfires so I figured a return journey wasn't the best idea). I also wanted to check out the town of Mendocino, which had been recommended to me by a friend who proclaimed it as the town where all the 60s San Francisco hippies had gone to retire.

DUSTING OFF

So I took some time away from my life under the relentless sunny skies of northern Australia to go and holiday...ummm, under the beating sun of the Nevada desert. Which is to say I went to Burning Man. Again.

BITTER SWEET

A couple of weekends ago I finally got around to heading down the track for a Territory-style minibreak. Though some may wonder why people living in the tropics would crave the experience of immersing ourselves in thermal pools, rather than say, waterfalls, the numerous thermal pools in the region are quite popular with both locals and tourists alike.

AUTUMN IN MELBOURNE CITY

I recently went for a jaunt down to much-loved Melbourne city. Only my second visit in as many years, it's a city I'd always planned to visit back when I last lived here, but never quite made it to. Acclaimed for its coffee, vintage thrift, trams, food, art and hipsters, it's touted as one of the most liveable cities in the world. It's certainly a great city for photos (the meagre selection I came back with was down to a combination of non photo-walk friendly footwear (rookie mistake) and a relatively short visit).

MAGNETISM

While termite mounds are a pretty common sight across the Territory, there are only a few spots where you can see the more unusual magnetic termite mounds. These occur only in open treeless plains and are aligned on a north-south axis to minimise their exposure to the harsh Australian sun. I've seen a few on private properties around Fogg Dam but the best place to get a viewing of these architectural marvels is in the very popular Litchfield National Park (about 100km south of Darwin, a popular recreational spot for locals and tourists alike).

CHEMIN

I popped over for a short trip to Paris recently to catch up with my mother (who regularly visits France to see her family). As opportunities to catch up with either of my parents are rare these days, I booked us a lovely room in my favourite part of Paris; Rue Mouffetard in the Latin Quarter.

SUMMER IN BRIGHTON

Despite the fact that the tragically hip town of Brighton is an embarrassingly short drive from where I live (about 90 minutes by lovely country back roads), I have only just got around to visiting recently. Considering how utterly full it is of awesome street art, amazing op-shops, wonderfully and imaginatively dressed folks, ultra cool cafes and bars, and a good portion of ex-Londoners who are leaving the increasingly inaffordable artist enclaves of the nation's capital in droves, I'm really baffled as to why I haven't taken some time out to wander round this way before now. Anyway, it's skyrocketed up to first place in my favourite places to visit over the weekend, here's a few snaps from some recent wanders...

LAND OF ICE AND FIRE

Iceland!
I finally made it to Iceland!
It's kind of been one of those bucket list things to that you forget is on your bucket list because of all of the other things on your bucket list, until one day you're flying there and thinking...
Hells yeah, I always wanted to visit Iceland!

JUNKET

A few snaps from Rabat, in Tunisia. I was tag-along translator girl for a work trip (being the only office based person at our organisation that actually speaks French...probably one of my main selling points in getting job considering that several countries we work in have French as their official language).

IT'S ALWAYS SUMMER IN PROVENCE

I recently went on a short trip to Vergeze, a small sleepy village in the South of France. Time to shed the heavy coats and get a welcome respite from the northern cold snap.