week forty six | emerald, victoria

Recently Max and I celebrated one year of Mario Kart games and noodle soup meals so we decided to go on an adventure. If I was in any doubt he is the guy for me, Max then brought it upon himself to book a treehouse. I HOUSE. IN. A. TREE. IN A TREE. GUYS.

Anyway this beacon of joy was in Emerald, just 45 mins or so from Melbourne in the Dandenong ranges. I feel like my blog gives quite a bit of love to the Dandenong ranges, but that is entirely justified because it really is a lovely part of the world - a complete escape from Melbourne whilst still being very close.  Emerald, I discovered, seems to be the major hub of the area because it’s actually much bigger than I had anticipated.

Once we got ourselves settled and i calmed down (it’s a house in a tree!), we headed into town for fish and chips and some sunshine. We also found a little park right near the Emerald puffing Billy train station which meant we could eat and see it pass by without needing to pay $45 for the privilege of actually riding it.

Post-fish and chips our afternoon consisted of getting together all the necessary cheese and dip requirements for the evening and heading back before the rain started. We ate much cheese and I absolutely annihilated Max in monopoly which i suppose means he’s a much better hippy then I am.

Oh, I forgot to mention! The treehouse where we stayed is actually part of what used to be the biggest nursery in the region, providing tree seedlings for all Avenues of Honour in Melbourne and beyond during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. It fell into disrepair but the property is now being lovingly brought back to life by a couple who spend lots of time in the garden uncovering the old architectural elements of the nursery. From the treehouse itself you get three full walls of glass looking out into the overgrown garden.

The rain had stopped by the next morning and so we headed out for a walk through the garden/jungle/overgrown tree area. The paths we were following were original nursery ones being slowly re-hashed out by the owners. We followed the path and found ourselves near the lake that forms one side of the Emerald Country Club, a beautiful golf course despite being well past it’s heyday. It reminded me a lot of the holiday club in dirty dancing minus all the practice lifts in the pond (if you know what I mean.)

Coffee was in order shortly after our walk so we took the recommendations of our lovely hosts and visited a new cafe in Gembrook to fill up and to insure I had enough pollen in my eyes and nose to get my hayfever raging for the rest of the weekend.

Much romance.           Many tree.                               Wow.

6/5 tree houses