A beautiful drive

I’ve wanted to visit the Great Ocean Road  for some time now. I recently went to Victoria to visit friends and squeezed in a very quick trip along the road to the Apostles. It was amazing! The one night I spent in Apollo Bay and the sightseeing across those two days was a great taste of the area, and I am super keen to go back for a longer trip one day to explore more.

Although I’ve seen hundreds of photos, nothing compared to driving the winding road and seeing the beautiful ocean views myself. I was quite surprised by the inland views too – I had no idea of the rolling green hills that are so close by. The Apostles themselves really amazed me – it takes a lot for me to really think ‘wow’ but they certainly did!

Quick Sunday shots

Here are a couple of quick shots I took of my friend Krista when we were in Brisbane on the weekend. We went to see the World Press Photo exhibition – it was amazing! Our super cheap and simple picnic lunch was awesome too – wholemeal bread rolls, turkey, bocconcini and very lemony lemonade. Yum!

It was close to the middle of the day, so I’m not too happy with the lighting and shadows in these shots but it was a quick chance to use my new camera for the first time and she looks great. And she loves the photos, so wins all round. It makes me happy when people are excited about my pictures of them. I would love to spend a decent amount of time (at a better time of the day) taking photos around the Powerhouse.

Rainbows

We had a rainbow picnic for my sister’s 21st. We dragged extended family along for the two hour drive to the Gold Coast (where she lived at the time), took over a few tables and (coincidentally rainbow) chairs and covered the area in colourful streamers and balloons. We even had rainbow cups and napkins.

The year before I had made my older sister a rainbow layer cake from a Martha Stewart recipe and Miss 21 requested a replica. I love baking for my family and friends but I like to try new – usually bigger and better – things each time a birthday rolls around (lucky for me, there’s a lot of those in my family).

So I took it a step further and covered the 21st cake in multi-coloured buttercream ‘roses’. It took way longer than I expected and had a disturbing amount of butter and sugar, but it definitely ticked the ‘rainbow’ box and was very popular!

It was soooo rich that this little piece was almost too much!

The birthday girl, dressed appropriately.

Both rainbow layer cakes I have made have got quite a reaction from those who didn’t know what was under the frosting – the first cake more so, because it was covered in white buttercream and my family hadn’t seen this before!

Here’s the original recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/256688/rainbow-cake

India

I never really wanted to go to India. I wanted to see the Taj Mahal, but the idea of having to spend time in such a dirty, loud and otherwise unappealing country – where I’d have to use squat toilets (gasp!) – meant I’d probably have go without.

My parents had been about five times, so I’d heard plenty about it and had occasionally toyed with the idea of going “maybe one day when I’ve seen all the places I really want to see” but it wasn’t high on the priority list.

Then, when my parents were three weeks out from going earlier this year and I had spent a day dreaming about where and when I would next travel, I realised how cheap a trip to India would be and decided to tag along. Little bit spontaneous, little bit exciting and a lot “oh my god let’s hope I can get a visa in three weeks now that I have booked flights”.

Fast forward three weeks later and after some drama to get there (missing a flight because I left my passport at home – I know, who actually does that?! – and then a very delayed flight) I had an amazing time.

I saw all the cliches I had expected to see and more. I visited some amazing places I didn’t even know existed, met some very cool people, got to experience Holi and had plenty of inspiration to pull out my camera. I highly recommend you go!

It was dirty – though surprisingly, for someone who is hand-sanitiser-obsessed at home in Australia, it didn’t bother me too much. And it was often – make that ALWAYS – extremely loud. But everything else made up for that and I’m pretty sure I’ll go back one day.

Oh, and I got through almost two weeks without using a squat toilet. Yep, it’s possible. I think everywhere we went there was at least the option of a Western-style toilet, and surprisingly, it was often the only option.

Here are some of my favourite photos/moments from the trip. Yes, there are a lot…it was hard to narrow it down to this!