Travel

Melbourne, Australia

More visitors! In October, Julie came to visit (remember when she visited me in Japan?). We somehow convinced her to join us on a trip to Melbourne, coincidentally at the same time as PAX Australia! What are the odds?!

This was my first trip to both Melbourne and PAX Australia and I have to admit… It was amazing! The vibe in Melbourne is very different from Sydney. I can see how a rivalry between the cities has developed over the years. Melbourne oozes art and hipster coffee from every laneway, with graffiti adorning nearly every surface along the way.  Continue reading

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Travel

North Island, New Zealand

Back in August, my mom came to visit my partner and me in Australia! It was an amazing visit and of course we did all the expected Sydney-tourism things. That said, my mom is a HUGE Lord of the Rings fan (as am I) so we decided to hop over to New Zealand for a road trip. For some reason Aussies really get annoyed by the American mentality of “Well I’ll be in Australia so I may as well visit New Zealand.” After visiting New Zealand I have comfortably decided that it’s because they are jealous their country has to be the size of America just to have as much terrain variation as New Zealand 😛 I’m sorry to my Australian friends but I couldn’t resist the jab. Also Kiwis are, as expected, very nice.

What better way to see Northern New Zealand than by driving the entire island.

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Ramblings

New Year, New Goals

Happy New Year!

Man, 2016 was a long year. Not only did a lot happen in the world that was emotionally taxing, but my own personal journey was made all the more difficult last year. Potentially one of the most difficult years to date, I’m not sad to see 2016 come to an end. Granted, there was a lot of good that came out of this time, too. Instead of droning on about how deeply I struggled with depression, loneliness, and career changes, I’m going to focus on the cool stuff I did this year. Continue reading

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