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