week fifty two | new years evie, tallarook, victoria

When I was in high school we had a tradition of spending New Years Eve on a friend’s rooftop, staying up late playing cards and hanging out, and then watching the sun rise over Bangkok each New Year. It was pretty great and for the last couple of years I’ve thought I couldn’t possibly have another New Years that was quite as lovely – but this year I was delightfully proved wrong.

New Years Evie is a very small festival held each year at Bruzzy’s farm in Tallarook. It’s on the same sight at Boogie (the festival they hold each Easter) but much smaller, more like you’re camping with 600 excellent new friends then being crushed in the mosh of an over-crowded and over-beer’d group of bogans.

We arrived at New Years Evie and set up our little camp ground. We got the tents and gazeboes set up and spent the rest of the day trying (in vain) to stay cool. It was a brutal 40 degrees and they ran out of ice early on, but swimming in the cool dam helped.

By the time the sun was setting it had cooled off enough for us to climb to the top of the hill and watch the sun set on 2015 – a year full of big achievements, awful moments, wonderful adventures and everything else that life held.

By nightfall it was time to get dusty, have a dance, have a drink and send up frequent requests for 2016 to be even better, with bigger adventures, dreams that come true, and ideally not too many awful times.

The next day was similar. Calm, cooler, relaxed and happy.

As Max and I drove back to Melbourne sun-kissed (or burnt depending on which one of us you ask) and dusty, I couldn’t help but feel so lucky. 2016 is going to be a massive year and right now (and possibly for the next couple of months) I have no idea what’s going to happen. I’d like to say I’m excited about all the openness but I’m really not. I’m stressed and scared, but I know that no matter what happens, I’ll make it through and when the time comes to climb a hill in Tallarook next New Years Evie I’ll be able to look back on all the things that happened and realize that I couldn’t even have dreamt of them.

TRIP RATING: 5/5 dusty sunsets

week fifty one | mornington peninsula, victoria

It’s hard to write about your favorite person on earth without getting all mushy and gross so today’s blog will be a simple one. The week before Christmas lovely Max celebrated his birthday and it was a pretty big one so it was fitting that we should hire a house and fill it with some of his best friends.

We set out for Rosebud mid-Saturday morning. It also happened to be day 3 of a massive heat wave so I think we were all rather relieved to discover that the house (another brilliant airbnb find) had aircon and a big deck out front which was the perfect spot to hang out and drink all afternoon.

After a quick visit to the beach we had fish chips for dinner and played cards and ping pong, all grateful to the heat for subsiding somewhat.

The next morning a bunch of us headed to brunch at a gorgeous little café and shop which was strangely located at an indoor pool. Don’t let that fool you though, we spent a few hours there ordering endless coffees and shopping for last minute Christmas jam.

It was then time for the beach again and this time we headed to Sorrento’s back beach. This means it’s ocean rather then bay water, complete with cooler temperatures (refreshing as could be) and waves.

We also got a chance to explore some rock pools and jump off some big rocks – I, of course, embarrassed myself in front of a gaggle of fearless small kids.

It was a great weekend celebrating Max with a bunch of very excellent people.

TRIP RATING: 5/5 beers on the deck

week fifty | bacchus marsh, victoria

I really hate feeling hung over (more then most people), however a couple of months ago I managed to find the perfect cure: strawberry and cherry picking!

A while back, my friends Steph and Alice (who both live in country Victoria) and I decided to visit the annual Bachus Marsh Strawberry and Cherry Festival. This way we would be able to see each other and catch up roughly in the middle of our homes (Horsham, Ballarat and Melbourne). I hardly ever get to catch up with them so I took Max along also to join in the fun and meet Alice for the first time.

I didn’t know what to expect, but Bacchus Marsh had a very strong Stars Hollow vibe with I totally appreciated. There were car parks and community spaces filled with stalls and games, balloons and costumed dancers. It was all very sweet, plus Steph was trying to enter the festival competition (by collecting stamps from various stalls) to win the “Ultimate Bacchus Marsh Experience!” (What a dream!)

After meeting up we parked our cars and headed to pick the actual berries. From what I can tell Bacchus Marsh is home to almost too many cheery and strawberry farms, who pull out all the stops during the annual festival; each one absolutely packed with happy pickers young and old.

We bought sausages and then stood in line for about an hour before being allowed to pick to our hearts content.

Between the sunshine and all the fresh berries I was feeling better in no time! We ate, we picked, we learnt what cheery trees looked like, and now we just a better idea of how to use cherries in everyday life…

Filled with more berries then we could handle we rolled ourselves to the pub for a late lunch. Though not awful, I probably wouldn’t recommend the pub to my friends and family.

It was a brilliant Saturday trip and I’m very pleased we did it. Hopefully it doesn’t take us another 12 months to catch up, but worst case scenario I’ll be seeing Steph and Alice in Bachus Marsh at the same time next year.

TRIP RATING: 5/5 freshly picked berries.

week forty nine | tent village of love, broadford, victoria

I think I should start this blog letting everyone know I have a bit of thing for weddings. I feel most things pretty strongly on an average day so you can only imagine how much I enjoy parties that are all about celebrating love.

I love them.

Charlotte and Bayden did a very lovely thing recently and actually had one of these brilliant wedding in celebration of their love fest and it lasting forever.

Now lucky for the rest of us they are both beautifully creative and big ideas people, so they had a wedding full of fancy tents, fairy lights, beers by the pool and dancing under the stars.

It was perfectly pulled together by all of Charlotte and Bayden’s loved ones and will forever remain as a blissful dream memory thing.

Unlike most other blog posts this is an adventure you wont be able to have yourself but is basically me just bragging about my lovely people doing lovely things.

If you’re not happy with that, I could also mention something about how love itself is a great adventure, but like… yuck.

TRIP RATING: 6/5 dreamy love tent villages

week forty eight | meredith music festival, meredith, victoria

Feeling underprepared is never nice, but what is probably even worst is expecting (and preparing for) the very worst case and trying to get ready (and have a good time) from there. In the past I’ve only ever been to much bigger music festivals; festivals where 50,000 drunken punters threw cups full of bodily fluid at each other in mosh pits that you couldn’t escape from even if you wanted to. I have to say, by comparison, my experience of Meredith was completely idyllic.

Just like everybody told me, Meredith is much smaller. It feels more like a village with a town square then a messy, multistage, sponsored music event. There is only one big stage, and festival-goers drag couches down from their campsites to claim viewing spots for the weekend. There is the Meredith eye, a ferris wheel that’s free to go on so long as you’re willing to wait.  AND, most importantly, I didn’t feel like I was being crushed to death by other humans all weekend.

Campgrounds form a ring around the central hub and we were lucky enough to camp with a great group of people, full of fun, lazing around in the sunshine and enjoying the music.

Meredith Music Festival runs over three days and two nights at the start of each December and was full of good vibes, great people, beers, sunrises, dancing, sparkles, and new friends. It was a brilliant weekend and not a signal cup of pee in sight! Win!

TRIP RATING: 4/5 dinosaur friends