REVISITING NEWCASTLE, AUSTRALIA

Scoring the ultimate backpacker goldmine (a house sitting opportunity) I unpacked and settled into Newcastle, a port city in New South Wales.

The small, very bicycle-friendly city has a blue collar grittiness thats mixed with a laid back surf vibe. It feels like a hidden gem on the brink of being overrun with people looking for an alternative to massive Sydney. It even had hints of my beloved Fremantle, with charming historical buildings sitting right along side the coast. 

Two of my favorite things combined: kombi vans and coffee.

Farmers market bounty. 

We visited Newcastle last year and were very pleased to come back. The Newcastle lifestyle is extremely easy to adapt to. The three weeks consisted of bicycling along the boardwalk, working out of the strip of cafe's on Darby Street, cooking curry dinners and enjoying the salt water of the Merewether Ocean Baths. 

The Hood Milk Bar

Merewether Ocean Baths

Ladies, hold on to your ovaries

2 of the 3 home owners, Charlotte and Jemma. 

From our time there, EditMate ended up doing some videos for HUNTERhunter, an online guide to Newcastle and (the surrounding) Hunter Valley. Their website is a cool guide for what to eat/see/do in Newcastle but here are some of my favorite spots:

MoMo: Beautiful, airy restaurant in a heritage building with giant high ceilings and delicious whole foods. 

One Two Seven Darby:  Lovely set-up and they put gorgeous FLOWERS on your organic quinoa oatmeal and it makes you wanna go meditate and be a vegan even though after, you'll go get bacon flavored gelato at Monella, which is just a few doors down.  

Cocowhip: OR if you want to ride that healthy train into an ice cream station, you can go get "bio fermented coconut soft serve" from Cocowhip. What it is, I don't actually know... but I know it's delicious and there's lots of fun toppings. 

Newcastle City Farmers Markets: I've been to a few farmers markets in my day and this was one of the best. 

Goldbergs: Dark wood everything, bohemian feel and hearty, savory real-good food. Super nice staff. Excellent coffee. 

Newcastle Memorial Walk: Endless ocean views. Nice spot for watching the paragliders. 

Merewether Ocean Baths: JUST HEAVEN. 

...AND of course, all of the Newcastle Beaches. There are 5 (!) of them. 

Lastly, for a little preview of what goes on in Newcastle -- here are the videos we edited for HUNTERhunter:

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Spider-people. 

We went to Sydney to rep EditMate at Ad:Tech Australia and stopped by the harbor to marvel at the Opera House and it's window washers. 

ANDY WARHOL + AI WEIWEI

I spent a morning at the Andy Warhol + Ai Weiwei exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria before my flight out of Melbourne.

Both men disrupted the art world while compulsively recording their lives, during different eras. Warhol with his tape recorder and Weiwei with Instagram and Twitter. Both have been criticized with desecrating art but actually have morphed the way the world understands art. 

Every morning, for 600 days, Weiwei put a bouquet of flowers in the basket of the bicycle that is outside his studio as a daily demonstration against the Chinese governments confiscation of his passport. He documented each day on his Flickr.  

Weiwei's Han Dynasty-era vases to resemble cheap modern containers, an example of his "long-standing interest in notions of cultural heritage, authenticity, and -- appropriately enough -- the value of art."

Ai flipping off the worlds most important monuments. "He describes it as his personal form of rebellion against any government authority who blatently or covertly disregard the freedom of its citizens."

Warhol's Chairman Mao portraits. His idea for this began when his dealer suggested that Warhol return to painting by making portraits of the most important figure of the 20th Century and celeb-loving Warhol remembered that he read Mao Zedong was the most famous person in the world at the time.

Ai's wife, Lu Quing, lifting up her skirt at Tiananmen Square. 

While Warhol died in '87, Weiwei is only 58 years old and continues to create very political work. 

I read a New York Times article about this exhibition at another gallery and it detailed that when Weiwei first viewed his work displayed with Warhol's he seemed "genuinely taken aback by how Warhol had influenced his work, often unconsciously"...

“It’s as if we were brothers,” he said, noting the similarities of Warhol’s early bird’s-eye ink sketches of the Manhattan skyline to his own youthful renderings of Shanghai’s rooftops. “Who could imagine that a poor Chinese kid would one day be showing his work alongside Andy’s?”

The postcard I bought at the gift shop on the way out is an old photo of a young Weiwei posing in front of an Andy Warhol painting at NYC's MOMA in 1987... just after Weiwei moved to New York and was taking odd jobs since he failed the entrance museum to Parsons School of Art + Design.

And now, 30 years later, he's exhibiting with Andy Warhol. How cool is that. 

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

I flew to Melbourne, Australia for an EditMate meeting and acted like fancy, high flying exec with curry and cocktail lunches at Chin Chin and dress shopping on Chapel Street... but I also slept on an inflatable mattress in Scott's sisters living room because, you know, reality. 

The city hasn't changed much since my days of running amuck there as a 22 year old living at Flinders Station Hostel. It was wild to meander through the same alleyways I used to, remembering how I once skipped dinner for 3 weeks to save up money to buy a coat I kept eyeing on my morning walk to Spring Street Cafe, where I was making sandwiches and not putting my bachelors degree to good use. 

Hosier Lane

Views of the Yarra River.

Federation Square

7 years later, I still wear that coat but I found that Spring Street Cafe no longer exists. The laneways however remain brightly spray painted and all the tiny, artsy coffee shops still lured me in and left me hyper-caffeinated. 

The shopping is still worth skipping a few meals to save up for too. 

If you ever find yourself in Melbourne, may I recommend checking out:

A25: I literally ate an entire pizza here. Go do the same. 

CUE: Shop here if you need to buy an outfit that says "I am a creative business owner" when all of your other clothes say "I have been living out of a backpack for the last year and a half". An incredibly chic sales woman really won me over her by being wildly helpful and lovely, but I later cursed her name (Jan) when I saw my credit card bill. 

Ponyfish Island: Outdoor bar in the middle of the Yarra River. Great sangria. Beautiful view. 

Urban Yoga: For yoga AND a vegetarian dinner for $14. I don't know what those Hare Krishna's are chanting about but they sure know how to cook. 

Good 2 Go: Take away coffee place on the famous Hosier Lane that trains and employs homeless and disadvantaged youth to get them in the job market. Also has killer cappuccinos. 

Lord of the Fries: The name alone is reason enough to visit but they do have outstanding "hot chips" (french fries) as well. 

Australian Center for the Moving Image: Incredible exhibitions. I saw a really interesting one called "All Current Art is Fake" featuring Cate Blanchett... and how awesome does the current Scorsese one look?

A DAY OUT ON THE GOAT BOAT

Goat. Owner of aforementioned boat. 

Chelsey. 

Scott. 

No fish were harmed on this trip (i.e. none were caught). 

A MORNING AT O'NEILL BAY

I've been all over the map the last few months.

Scott and I left New Zealand to expand EditMate into Australia (and explore along the way), then headed back over the Pacific for a day of swimming in everything that's glorious about America (filtered coffee! right side of the road driving!) in LA before landing in Austin, TX for a week of wedding festivities and taco hangovers. Then, we headed north to Massachusetts where we've settled into my beloved Jamaica Plain, for a TBD amount of time.

More on all of that soon. 

Until then, here's a few photos from a nice morning at O'Neill Bay in New Zealand. It was a perfect morning for a surf, a nap and an expansive game of fetch for Smokey. 

SHOTS AROUND AUCKLAND

Morning at the markets.

Smokey, pondering the meaning of life.

Brunch at Mondays.

Auckland Art Gallery. 

Rangitoto Island from Takapuna Beach. 

PIHA BEACH

Black sand at the west coast's Piha Beach. 

VALENTINE'S DAY

This year Scott learned what it's really like to date an American: we treat Valentine's Day like an episode of The Bachelor. 

Flying over Auckland!

LIFE LATELY IN AUCKLAND

Making friends at the zoo via food bribery. 

Day at The Cricket. I had no idea what was happening. 

Mount Eden crater

Smokey!

Hiking in the Waihi Gorge.

Western Springs Park

HIKING THE WAITAKERE RANGES

Sometimes I get all eye-roll-y-American at Auckland because it's a small place in a tiny country and everything closes at 3 PM.

Other times, I drive 30 minutes outside the city and arrive at a magnificent landscape that's a cross between Jurassic Park and Eden. And then I'm just... in awe.

Hiking the Waitakere Ranges was one of those times. 

A lot of the photos I take end up being back-of-head shots of Scott, which may seems like a creative choice or a way to make Scott look ~mysterious~ but really it's because I'm a slow walker and meander my way through life. 

Hiking. It's just walking! Until there is an ascent involved. 

Repping the alma mater at the top. 

Almost caught up to him...

...aaaand he pulls ahead during the descent. 

CAMPING IN RAGLAN

Cooking a "Sandy + Rachel Signature Dish" out the back of the van: omelettes and lettuce-less salad 

Truly working remotely.

My van, looking rather rustic from the rocky, dirt roads.

Camping at Ruapuke Beach. 

Last view before sleep...

...and first view in the morning. 

SMOKEY THE DOG

I like dogs (cats are another story) but I've never really understood people who are suuuper into their dogs. As in they personify their dog, talk about their dog, take their dog everywhere and talk TO their dog in that particular high pitched voice usually reserved for infants and toddlers.  I've never understood it. Kind of similar to the way I feel about folks who opt to have standing desks. 

This all changed when I met Scott's Dad's dog, Smokey. I officially became one of those people. 

Smokey is smarter and more pleasant than a lot of humans out there. He doesn't require a leash, will wait patiently outside a grocery store for you while you shop, loves hanging out in cafes while you work, is an ideal wingman for meeting new people because he's so handsome people just want to pet him AND he does tricks. He's the ideal running and hiking companion, loves to explore the city, always down for a road trip, is incredibly friendly and relaxed, loves the beach and on top of all of that, is wildly photogenic. 

He's just a dreamboat. I don't know who I've become. I've never felt this way about a dog before. 

CHRISTMAS ON WAIHEKE ISLAND

Smokey!

Bird that attacked Scott, and rightfully so, because he threw a shell at them.

We took the ferry over to the insanely beautiful Waiheke Island for Christmas to celebrate with Scott's family.

Between eating an extraordinary amount of brie, we beached, hiked and once the sun set, binge watched Master of None. I also finally saw the New Zealand film Boy which is so, so wonderful. Again, put me on a tropical island and I'll still manage to get excited about Netflix. 

BACK IN AUCKLAND

Full disclosure: this blog is (perpetually) a little behind... so be prepared for Xmas in NZ posts even though it's actually currently March and I'm in Australia. Lots to catch up on! 

Here's the start of an Auckland summer:

Smokey. Who you will see many, many more photos of because he came my best bud/photo muse during my time in NZ. 

The cat, Slinky, would also come on walks. 

This summer was filled with lots of work (mostly from my remote offices: The Ponsonby Library and The Raw Kitchen) but also road trips in my beloved van, beach days at Piha and many runs around my new temporary home: the Te Atatu Peninsula.

It was a good summer. More soon.