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
