As I was taking the best photos that I could of Muldalsfossen (foliage in the way and all), I realized that something kept touching my behind – and it was breathing…

Just then, a police car with a pair of officers pulled up from behind us and had its high beams flashed onto us. Clearly, they must’ve thought we were up to no good…

It seemed that the further I went, the trail got progressively muddier, overgrown, and less defined. I kept thinking that I must be doing something wrong, but I swear I couldn’t find another way…

It was almost 6pm when we finally arrived at the visitor center at the mouth of Lysefjorden. From my travel research, I knew this fjord featured the famous Preikestolen and Kjerag…

My dad guarded the car as he was armed with a trekking pole. He was determined not to let the radiator-hose-eating marmots underneath the vehicle and possibly disable the car…

Of all the waterfall hiking and viewing I’ve done up to this point, the one thing missing was getting to the top of Yosemite Falls. My inner voice kept nagging at me to do the hike…

Complicating things were that parking in the Octagon was very temporary at best and we kept a close eye on our car in case the parking enforcer would come by and issue tickets, which we witnessed…

With the rain coming down harder, we had beat a hasty retreat into the Pass Hut Shelter. I knew this region was one of the rainiest in the world and they sure weren’t kidding…

I was concerned that the unseasonable and unstable weather would kill our viewing experience, but as the bus driver turned into pullout, we were blown away by what we saw…

It had been pouring rain since yesterday. We worried that this would cancel our pre-booked heli-hike on the thick ice of the Franz Josef Glacier. Given the low-lying clouds and poor visibility…

I wasn’t sure we were going to make it to the Pancake Rocks in time for sunset – especially given our Maui rental car snafu experience and the probability it will rain on the South Island’s West Coast

The weather report had predicted bad weather until Friday. Unfortunately, it was Tuesday and I was worried our hoped-for Tongariro Crossing hike was in jeopardy…

I had read somewhere that this road tended to break up marriages as couples would argue after finding out it wasn’t the shortcut one of them hoped it would be. I prayed this would not be our fate…

When I look back at the destination wedding photos taken by Susanna and her nephew, I still get misty-eyed. It was one of those rare times when all of my expectations were exceeded. I’ll never forget

We headed west along SH12 when we had to follow a slow-moving truck. And so we merrily waited for an opportunity to pass the truck safely when a police car was suddenly in our rear-view mirror…

The Falls River almost covered the entire canyon floor I was in. Clearly I could go nowhere without getting into the water. Then, with a roar of thunder, I quickly abandoned any thought I had…

I noticed there wasn’t anything but grass and low-lying bush around us on the trail. With the lightning flashing with such frequency, I wasn’t sure what we should do…

Julie kept her eyes on me to make sure I didn’t get too far out. Then, I pointed my camera down towards the falls, but suddenly the wide angle lens dropped from the camera…

Determined to see Waterwheel Falls after my disappointing discovery last week, the time had come to retry in a day a hike that I and two others had done in three days…

I called the backcountry office to make sure they secured our permits in case we didn’t show up before 10am. It felt pretty good to have things in hand – or so I thought…