Autumn colours at the Valley of Liquid Ambers

In Australia, we are back into autumn! Growing up I was always adamant that winter was my favourite season. I much prefer the cooler weather and I enjoy hiking, which is really nice when it isn’t stinking hot. But in the last few years I have come to appreciate autumn much more to the point that I think autumn is now my favourite season.

I love everything about it, from the weather (which is still cooler than summer, but not the sometimes-freezing temperatures of winter) to the autumn colour palette. Not only do I love autumn colours in fashion (I look pretty good in them if I do say so myself), but the incredible array of trees. For some reason I never really paid much attention to autumn colours growing up. I never lived in areas that were noteworthy for their colours and was just never really aware of them and it has only been in the last few years that I have been drawn to them.

Last year I started to notice a few trees near where I live that changed colour. It was at this point that I decided to do a bit of research to try and find towns nearby with more concentrated amounts of autumn trees. And thankfully, I live not too far from Bowral in New South Wales, which is quite well-known for its spectacular autumn colours. I took a solo trip down there one weekend and really enjoyed just driving around the streets and taking in the sights. And then I ended up going down again the following weekend with some friends, which was just as much fun the second time around.

This year I was very keen to check out some more incredible autumn colours and I found the perfect time for it over Easter when I had some time off. I planned a trip down to Victoria to visit my siblings and we planned to spend Easter weekend camping on a friend’s property in Heathcote, Victoria. When we arrived, we found out that there is actually a whole section of parkland in the town dedicated to autumn trees. It is called the Valley of Liquid Ambers and it is stunning!

On Good Friday afternoon we stopped in at Gaffney’s Bakery in town for some pies before wandering over to the park, which included traversing a pretty cool suspension bridge. The Valley of Liquid Ambers certainly didn’t disappoint, it was actually much bigger than I expected and filled with trees that were covered in leaves of various shades. There were a number of people walking among the trees and stopping to take photos, which we unashamedly joined in with as soon as we finished our pies. We took turns posing in front of the camera while the others in the group threw piles of leaves into the air.

We ended up coming back again the next day and spent a relaxing afternoon sitting amongst the trees, taking even more photos (with a required outfit change of course) and racing around amidst the trees. It was probably my favourite part of the whole weekend, such a special opportunity for quality time with my siblings that I don’t often get to see.

If you are ever near Heathcote during autumn, I would highly recommend you stop by – it is incredibly beautiful and large enough that even if there are a number of others there, there is still plenty of space for you to find your own little section to take photos. It really filled me with joy to see so many beautiful colours and to be able to just soak it in for so long without having somewhere else that I had to rush off to.