Most of my 3 month stint in New Zealand this year consisted of EditMate work (pitch meetings, editing videos, cursing NZ's archaic wifi when uploading and downloading said videos) but I did make sure to step away from my laptop and get out and enjoy NZ's epic landscape.

Here's a few photos from a day hiking the Mercer Bay Loop:

It's one of the oldest settled areas in the Waitakere Ranges and has a tragic past. Maori folklore says a Maori Chief's beautiful daughter drifted off from here after mourning her husband who got swept off to the ocean from a giant wave that hit the cliff.

Since then, multiple women have gone missing from this cliff (one just this past March) only adding to the Bay's haunted legend.

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

...aaaand he pulls ahead during the descent.

MERCERY BAY LOOP HIKE

HIKING THE WAITAKERE RANGES