Skiing Trip 2018 - Day 7, Skiing, Jindabyne to Canberra

Yesterday was our last day of skiing, and even though our knees were sore, our noses were sunburnt, and both our boots started playing up, we definitely made the most of it. We spent the morning at Mt Perisher, and while I did Happy Valley, Andrew braved the blue runs on Mt Perisher, including the ungroomed Towers run, it sounded crazy!



We met back up at mid station and made our way over to Smiggen Holes for lunch and decided to spend the afternoon there. We did the beautiful green Wood runs a bunch of times, tried the j-bar, then decided to try some of the blues which we heard were very gentle. Blanchy's was NOT gentle! The first section was extremely steep, but I managed to get down (very slowly) while Andrew waited patiently. There was another couple, the girl also called Jess, in the same predicament; other Jess was freaking out and her boyfriend was trying to encourage her down. I went first, but couldn't look back to see where other Jess was; hope she made it!



Andrew continued to do the blue runs off the Wills (or Burke) T-Bar while I did the chair run (also blue run, but actually a gentle one as promised) then we met up to take the Smiggens Escape back to the Telemark T-Bar then back to Perisher. We did the V8 run a couple more times then called it a (well enjoyed) day. Andrew finally gave into doughnut-smell temptation at the Skitube station and enjoyed the mini doughnuts.



Here's some photos from the roaming Perisher photographer!








An overview of skiing at Perisher:

• I can't believe how good the snow was in Australia
• There are wombats on the slopes at Guthega, probably why there's a run called Wombats
• Smiggen's Hotel has the best soup of the day
• I can do some blue runs now and not be scared of dying
• I can't believe I did Zali's and didn't die
• Andrew is getting really good, way better than I am, and can do all blue runs without being scared of dying
• The Station is not a bad motel at all, but beware the heater settings
• People may take your skis accidentally since all the rental ones look alike; lock your skis with a friend so there's one of each together to make it harder for someone to make that mistake!

The drive to Canberra was OK but the sun was already down so we didn't see much other than the pretty view of Lake Jindabyne when we first left. The edges of the road were again littered with a massacre of kangaroos and wombats, so we took it quite slowly, especially since we saw a bunch of kangaroos grazing at the side of the road.

I feel the most sorry for the poor dead wombats; they're always positioned so comically with their little paws up in the air, and they're usually spray painted pink (I guess for visibility?) which adds to the indignity of their deaths, poor little things. I guess we're used to seeing roos, but the wombats seemed so much more tragic.

Last night we arrived at the beautiful and stylish QT hotel, such a nice change! The hotel is lovely, but compared to the Wellington QT (which we stayed at last year) the staff are not quite at the same standard. We've had a few confusions, mostly to do with the staff having no idea what the priority guest program is about, but the funniest one was this morning when we noticed we only had 1 non-decaf coffee pod, called to ask for more regular ones, then the staff came back with more decaf coffee pods! Can't really complain though especially since the room is fantastic, and each thing has really just been funny. Drinks, olives, and polenta chips at The Capitol were outstanding (despite having to improvise an olive pip cup).





Today we'll be exploring Canberra and seeing Iva for dinner tonight!