The Land Down Under

The past four weeks have been nuts with travel to Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand, plus a slew of assignments, so I've been a VERY tardy blogger. I'm trying to play catch up now.

Hiking in Australia. 

The month started off with a whirlwind work trip to Australia, which was incredible, but exhausting. I was hopping from place to place for interviews and having to drive on the opposite side of the road -- no small task when roundabouts are involved! I kept hitting the windshield wipers instead of the blinker, reaching for my seatbelt over my left shoulder instead of my right side and was honked at more times than I care to admit. 

Off the coast of Australia. 

Julian Rocks in background. 

The trip began in a beautiful beach enclave south of Brisbane and then took me to the Victorian Alps to write about ski properties. (You can read the result of my alpine reporting here; the other story is forthcoming.) I did get to slip in a little down time, which resulted in taking a lovely hike to the most eastern tip of Australia -- like, literally the end of the world -- and got to see some kangaroos just hanging out in front of a someone's yard. 

Views from Dinner Plain, an alpine village near Mt. Hotham ski resort. 

An original cattleman's hut. 

View from the drive to Falls Creek. 

I ended up in Melbourne for some final interviews before jetting back to Beijing. 

Hardware Lane in Melbourne, a cute alley with restaurants and shops. 

Australia was incredible and I hope to get to go back for a proper vacation in the future. The amount of wide, open space and fresh air was amazing, as was the juicy steak, fresh fish and loads of healthy, organic food. The country seemed to be part hippie enclave, part European sophistication, part we-don't-give-a-damn. Everyone was extremely nice and I couldn't get over the fabulous accents -- or the boatloads of alcohol these folks consume. I was surprised half of them can even hold down jobs! 

Local surfing competition. 

Sunset. 

A few highlights: hiking to the lighthouse along the hilly coastline, learning the history of cattlemen's huts, seeing kangaroos and shopping at a local flea market (where EVERYTHING was handmade/raw/made of bamboo/kale-centric/input your natural synonym here. 

Gorgeous lighthouse 

Pretty far east. 

The low point: trying Vegemite. Apologies to folks who swear by it. I really don't get it. 

Oh hey there ...

Roos!! 

A week later, I was on a plane to Hong Kong for Fortune's Most Powerful Women International summit. I had been working on this conference since the spring, so it was a relief to finally see it happen. Some of the great speakers included Jennifer Li, the CFO of Baidu (China's equivalent of Google), Gina Qiao, the head of HR at Lenovo and Vicky Song, the first Chinese woman to circumnavigate the globe via the Clippers Race. Random, fun fact: our good friend Tom, who just left Beijing to move back to London, was on the same boat with her in the race! It really is a small world. 

Pattie Sellers of Fortune interviewing Vicky Song at MPW in Hong Kong. 

November ended with a much-needed vacation to Thailand ... which will be my next post!