Japan

In February and March earlier this year, my adventure time bud and I went on our most epic adventure yet. Japan - land of pow. To say we fucking loved this country would be an gross understatement. From the food, to the snow, to the people, we were the frothiest of froths.

We hit Tokyo first, with our teenie tiny accommodation in Shinjuku (the red light district of Tokyo.) The city is mental. A constant bombardment of lights, smells and noise to the senses. Every shop and restaurant is covered in bright flashing lights, music blares from the doorways and you can buy almost anything from a vending machine on every corner. The streets are crowded with a constant flow of people, but despite this, the streets are incredibly clean. We loved the Japanese people - they are kind, patient and intelligent and holy shit they know how to eat well. English isn't very widely spoken and all the restaurant signs and menus are in Japanese, so Jord and I would just walk the streets and pick places to eat at random and we were never disappointed! Japanese BBQ's being the token fave of the trip!

We were lucky enough to have our friend Tomomi train up from Kyoto to meet us in Tokyo and show us around. We ticked off a huge number of spots around the city in just a day of hanging with her! If we didn't have her, I don't know how we would have coped with the trains. The subway is this insane spiderweb of destinations, everything is in Japanese and you have to buy your tickets from little machines (no english options here either) so we were pretty stoked to have her with us! (We miss you Tomomi!)

After a jam packed 4 days in Tokyo full of sightseeing, trains, walking (so much walking), DISNEYLAND!, Mr. Donuts (like errday), Harajuku Girls, pretty gardens, cat cafes and HEAPS of food it was time to fly up to Hokkaido for POW TIME! After a few hours on a bus to Niseko, we were treated to some the best snow in the world. White room magic every damn day. It would bucket with snow every night, and we trumped it with a handful of bluebird days. Niseko is so rad. It's like mini Australian settlement, which has its pro's and cons (dat accent uugghh (sorry, not sorry.) But means that most people speak english and the drinking/party culture is exactly what you'd expect. Chuurrr.

Fast forward through going super large on our last night in Niseko and having a hungover spew on a luxury Japanese bus, we arrived in Furano. Being a little further north and having just had a huge dump of fresh snow, we were in pow heaven once again. Furano has stupid fun terrain and sick back country riding. 3 weeks riding in Japan is easily the equivalent to 2 whole seasons in NZ (eff you Mt Ruapehu you moody icy bitch.) (jk luv u.)

Japan was the raddest 3 weeks and boarding Ruapehu riding will never be the same again. Ugh, why did I blog about this.

Take me back.

Fiji

This July I was fortunate enough to go on another overseas adventure with the amazing Chris McLennan. We were there to shoot a number of hotels and resorts in the Mamanuca Islands. Chris has been to Fiji more times than he can count over the past 20 years, so knows how to play it cool. Me on the other hand; I was an over excited child losing my shit at the warm waters and balmy nights.

During our 2 week stay in Fiji, New Zealand had some redic cold weather, some of which made its merry way up to the Islands. Their idea of jeans and hoodie weather is a sweet 18 degrees at night. So while the Fijians were losing their minds at how cold they thought it was, I was frolicking around in shorts and t-shirt being all like "lol it's so hot."

Working along side Chris is always such a privilege; he is always sharing great advice, amazing photos, hilarious stories and travel tips for everywhere in the world. On this trip I also got to see his drone in action which aids Chris in producing such incredible shots and angles you just cannot achieve in a chopper - check out his Facebook page to see his drone shots here!

I developed an unhealthy obsession with geckos during my time in Denarau. I find them ridiculously adorable and I like their skin. Not weird. I almost caught a really big one. I named him Gareth. 

Shoot locations: Denarau, Matamanoa Island, Tokoriki Island. Incredible food from Flying Fish Resturaunt at Sheraton Tokoriki! #drrooooolll

Huge thanks to Billabong New Zealand for some sweet gears that served me proper well in this amazing tropical playground. Also shout out to the boat I fell off trying to get onto the beach on Tokoriki. RIP iPhone 5s. If it wasn't for my Dakine camera bag, it would have been game over for my Nikon too! I'm not proud to admit agility levels were at an all time low that day.

Hope you enjoyed heaps of photos of my feet. I need adventure friends to maintain the standard of my fotofoto. Otherwise it's just like... what can I point my camera at when I'm alone? Feet. Because they are in front of me when I'm sitting down. And it's totes Instagram to have pics of your feet in cool places. Also managed the odd water celfie. But let's be real, that shit ain't easy with a chunky DSLR.

I also got to be a water sports model. Check out some wicked cool shots by Chris below. Rad being the subject in some cool pics for once. A++ would model again.

Oh yeah, and I got married. Love you Renie.

Beijing, China

*conundrum

Last July I travelled to Beijing with the great Chris McLennan Photography. Chris has been an idol of mine since I studied photography years ago, so to be able to work along side him was such an amazing opportunity. To say I picked up tips and tricks from one of the best photographers in the world is such a buzz! So a huge thank you to Chris and his beautiful wife Cat for being a couple of cool kids and making this happen!

This collection of images is all I managed to bring home from 2 weeks in Beijing shooting some very fancy hotels. In between working, trying to function in the heat, and just overall being in absolute awe of my surroundings, this is all I managed to rustle up to show you fellas!

The highlight of the trip of course being our trip to The Great Wall of China. We didn't want to go to the real touristy spots of the wall - not only are these hugely crowded in summer with souvenir stalls everywhere, they are also mostly restored. Although it would have still been incredibly cool, it's not the best for photo photo. So Chris being the magical worker he is managed to wrangle us a private guide to reach a completely unrestored and rugged part of the wall. I knew it was going to be a decent hike - a couple of hours I was told. Hah, poor naive past Lola. I wish I could tell her she is about to be broken.

After about an hour in the car, we pulled into a tiny little village at the base of the mountain. I kept trying to spot out the window how we could possibly be getting to the wall - I could see the teeny tiny towers sitting ontop of the spine of the mountain, but could never trace out a path to get to it. I remember telling myself "Chill mate, it will all make sense when we start walking."

So we met our guide - a photographer himself. He spoke no english, but we had two Chinese locals with us from the hotel that could translate for us. We were invited into his house where he then showed us his own photographs. Pretty impressive stuff. A couple of them were shot in winter, covered in snow (see shot he is standing next to, photo 21 in post) - how he climbs that mountain in the snow I'll never know. Mind you, he did the pending hike like it was a casual walk to the dairy for him.

Once everyone was introduced and after we shared some pointing, smiling and thumbs-upping we set out. The start of the hike began through some of his apricot orchids. He just plucked fruit off the trees and threw them at us to eat - ah.ma.zing. After about an hour of walking/stumbling on loose rock, getting tiny cuts from SHITTY grass, saying wassup to some wild goats, getting bitten by a bug of some description, bleeding from said bite and worrying I'll die from said bite, we reached the "half way point" (psshht. Not even.)

So remember the part of my story when I said the path of how we were getting to the top of the mountain would become obvious? Yeah, nah, still not obvious. So this is when I lose faith in the universe showing me the way and get all like "uumm how are we getting up there?" (Heli plz.) Nina our translator is also curious about this, so asks our guide. He just kind of looks at me and points to the mountain, points to me and makes climbing guestures while saying something in mandarin. I look at him and then at Nina and then at the mountain and awkwardly laugh. Nina says "We climb." Um... ok... wow. I'd also like to mention it's 36 DEGREES CELCIUS. And I'm slowly dieing from a bug bite. And dehydration. Chris is just like, 'lol I do this kind of shit every week.'

At this point I would like to refer you to the 23rd photo of this post (*conundrum) - see the squarer looking tower in the middle, and then the dip to the right of it. Mmmhmm, we climbed up there. And yes I wore my Nikes. I'm an athlete ok.

Long story short, after a lot of stopping, slipping, almost falling to death-ing, we made it. And holy.moly it was worth it. I have no words to describe to you the extensive views and rediculous layers of mountain ranges which just continued to get better and better as the sun went down. It blew my mind. I got to learn some great stuff from Chris, lunge ontop of tower #15, eat a danish and fall down The Great Wall of China (there was loose rubble ok, I'm claiming it as an achievement. None of you have fallen down The Great Wall of China. Maybe, quite possibly, most likely something to do with my Nikes.)

After watching the sunset and the moon rise, we ate snacks under the stars and made our descent at about 11pm. I thought the hike up was hard. Climbing down a mountain with messed up legs in the dark was a whole different story. One which I will tell you if I ever meet you and you ask. It will go something like "it was reeaaal hard." I then had room service hot chips at like 2 in the morning. Best chips I've ever had.

Thanks for reading my blabble. Surprised to see how many of you got through all that. Like, chill Lola, only your mum cares.

Any questions? Hit me up on the comments section of my Facebook or Instagram. Toodles.

*Pic of me lunging on tower by Chris McLennan. Check out his Facebook page for more amazing work!