Skiing Trip 2018 - Day 4, 5 and 6, Skiing!

Man I love skiing!

After picking up our gear (mine was serendipidously labelled Alex H) we took the 8am Skitube (a mountain train) to Perisher Valley. We did a couple of runs on the magic carpet run, then the V8 chair run to warm up for our lesson at Blue Cow (another stop on the Skitube).







The lesson was really fun! We agonised for ages as to which group to go into, and since everyone else was agonising too the instructors decided to merge a dark green / light blue group, then split off after assessing our skills on a couple of runs. We landed in the light blue group, of which Andrew was the best and I was the worst. The instructor focused on getting us into parallel turns, hockey stops, and took us up a couple of blue runs (Side Saddel and Zali's) which was great to get our confidence up. I absolutely shat it on Zalis though, and had to snow plow every turn, but, I didn't die! Andrew did amazingly.

We also used a t-bar for the first time! I cannot believe this is a thing, it's fucked up. The first time was OK, the second time we fell quite comically, and now I think we have the hang of it, but only by swearing the whole way up. What a crazy invention! I don't trust them. They always pretend they're going to push you into a pole before pulling you away at the last minute.





We skied across Perisher and Blue Cow, stopping for a curry lunch at the Blue Cow terminal beer at Perisher terminal.





I was much more well prepared for Day 2.



Day 2 was a beautiful blue bird day and we spent it going across the Perisher, Blue Cow, and Guthega runs. My favourite run was from Perisher, V8 Chair down to the Perisher Quad Express Chair (full way up) via the bottom of Escapade, then down the Blue Cow Express Way and Copperhead Road down to the Telemark T-Bar, then back to the bottom of Perisher. We did that a couple of times, and stopped for lunch at the Sun Deck.







Then, on the Norwegian Trail we saw a wombat! No one warned us there was a possibility of running into a goddamn wombat. It was so cute, I can't imagine what it must have been thinking.





We hung around for night skiing and fireworks at Perisher, and dinner at Jax which was a giant plate of veggies for me (thanks Andrew for asking for more steamed veggies), and a self-cooked steak for Andrew.









When going back to grab our skis, we noticed that someone had grabbed Andrew's instead of theirs (there was an almost identical set near by). The very helpful Kate from Perisher explained that this actually happens a lot, and to just go back to the ski hire place in the morning and let them know what happened. Andrew got a new set in the morning in time for his lesson on Day 3, aka the Blizzard of Doom day.

Andrew had an awesome lesson this morning and was lucky enough to land in a group of 3, basically a private lesson. They did Accelerator and Zali's (two blue runs) at Blue Cow; I'm so impressed since it started snowing quite heavily  at around 10:30am, which was midway through his lesson. We decided to make our way to Smiggens Holes in the hopes that it would be a bit more protected from the snow, but it certainly was not. After an awesome lunch at the Smiggens Hotel, we did a few runs (at, we estimate, ~20% visibility being optimistic) before deciding to call it a day since the snow was completely taking over our goggles, and make our way back to Perisher.







We almost perished. It was crazy getting back! Although, there was a family with a small child on a tow rope making the same run back to Perisher as we were so maybe it wasn't as crazy as I thought. But, at one point I literally couldn't see a thing and the wind was blowing a gale down the mountain, who's edge was uncomfortably close to the narrow cat track we were on. The mulled wine at the end was absolutely necessary.



I can't believe tomorrow is already our last day! Hopefully the crazy snow today will make it a perfect day tomorrow. We're planning to ski the whole day, then drive to Canberra. I don't feel sorry for looking forward to staying in the beautiful QT Hotel tomorrow night; The Station is functional, but not the luxury we left at The Hyatt in Melbourne.

I'm so glad I've started being able to do blue runs!

Skiing Trip 2018 - Day 3, Glenrowan to Jindabyne

After a big breakfast at Vintage Hall Cafe in Glenrowan (recommended by the lovely owner of the Glenrowan motel), we explored the town of Glenrowan, which is where Ned Kelly's last stand took place. 

I'm currently reading The True History of the Kelly Gang (Andrew's already read it), and it's really cool to start visually putting some places to events. There's some cool replicas built around town, and while you really have to use your imagination to extrapolate what it must have looked like at the time, it's such an interesting place to explore and discover the various important landmarks of Ned Kelly's story. We even got to see a train go past on the rail way tracks! Turns out it still runs passenger trains. 

Glenrowan has really taken the Ned Kelly theme to the extreme, with pretty much every sign having Ned Kelly's armour incorporated somehow (e.g. the Ned Kelly bakery has Ned Kelly dressed as a baker), but somehow it doesn't seem tacky.

We stopped at Milawa Cheese Factory and Brown Brothers and stocked up on some cheese (cows camembert, aged blue, and markwood cheddar) and wine (a couple of bottles of the Tempranillo and Graciano) for dinner tonight and snacks over the next couple of days, then started the long drive to Jindabyne.

Crossing the border from Victoria to NSW was so low key!

We stopped at to Corryong to stretch our legs (and appreciate the statue of the Man from Snowy River), then Khancoban to rent some tyre chains (which we luckily didn't need, but the $50 was well spent anyway for peace of mind). 

After checking the weather, we decided to take Alpine Way and were lucky enough to have perfect conditions, and basically got to drive through a winder wonderland that I wouldn't in a million years have guessed was Australia.

We checked into The Station then drove to Jindabyne to pick up some supplies from Woolworths. Pro tip for anyone staying here; they don't have hair driers, but the rooms are warm enough that it probably won't matter too much as long as you wash your hair in the evening rather than the morning. Dinner was cheese and wine and bits and pieces, so glad we bought the squashed bottle cheese board! 

Tomorrow; skiing. 

Skiing Trip 2018 - Day 2, Melbourne to Glenrowan

Yesterday we drove from Melbourne to Glenrowan via Healesville, Marysville, Bonnie Doon, Mansfield, and Benalla.

The stop in at Healesville was a quick drop in to Four Pillars to pick up some more negroni marmalade, which is the clever way those guys make use of all the oranges used in their distilery.


We took the beautiful black spur drive to Marysville, the town that was the worst hit by the 2011 fires. You could barely see any evidence of the fire in the pretty little town, but driving out the trees were visibly burnt but still looking strong.





Next we drove to Bonnie Doon, the famous town from the movie The Castle, a favourite in the Burton household. We even found Darryl Kerrigan's actual house, complete with Coco's dog kennel, and enjoyed the serenity down by the lake.







We made a quick stop at Mansfield, then made our way to Benalla where we spent some time exploring the street art scattered around town. The street art seemed really out of place for the town, especially contrasted against all the street knitting! Our favourite was Ned Kelly (the dog one was cool too, but we couldn't figure out how to get close!).









We had an early dinner at Glenrowan pub, where I had almost the best fish and chips I've ever had, then watched Oceans 11. We were hoping the motel would have The Castle, but no luck!





Today we're driving to Jindabyne, about to head to breakfast!

Skiing Trip 2018 - Day 1, Melbourne

Yesterday I arrived in Melbourne, meeting Andrew at the Grand Hyatt to start our very much needed holiday. Andrew had been over for a work trip, so we decided to tack on a Melbourne/Perisher/Canberra/Sydney holiday on the end of it.

I left Perth at 8am, braving the freezing cold weather in my new Nike fleece (thanks Claire, Michael and Iva!) and Uggs.


When I arrived, Andrew was still finishing off some work so I went to the gym which was a nice way to stretch the legs after the flight. We got ready and headed out to Eau de Vie for a very elaborate set of drinks (both involved liquid nitrogen), then to Chin Chin for dinner (it's as good as Andrew's reviews), and then a night cap at 1806.









This morning we got up early for the gym, and thank god we did because we just finished an epic buffed breakfast that I'm pretty sure will do me for the next two days. We stole some food for the road just for good measure, but who do you think made the better choice about portability? I think Andrew's choice is going to be a bit of a pain! (full credit goes to Andrew for that pun of the day). It's already flaking all over the place.







We're about to start our drive towards Glenrowan!