We would fly overnight, 7+ hours to Melbourne, then promptly hop in a rented SUV and drive another 7+ hours in to rural Victoria and over the mountains in to the "snow fields" of New South Wales and ski for a few days before making the return voyage back to Melbourne. Now, when you tell an Australian that you flew to Melbourne to ski at Perisher/Threadbo, they look at you like you have 3 heads, and repeat what you said your plans were, just to make sure they heard your crazy-American-self right.
I couldn't really understand this reaction when we were planning the trip... why not fly to Melbourne? The ski resorts are about half-way between Sydney and Melbourne and the flights were cheaper and better timed in to Melbourne. Sure Canberra is closer, but virtually impossible to arrive there in a convenient and cost efficient manner and all reports are that Canberra is pretty lame. And we are young, adventurous people- a little road trip is good fun right?
Excellent navigation skills at work.
Well, they look at you like you are crazy because you very well might be! This was no drive through the park that we undertook. Turns out getting to Perisher/Threadbo from Melbourne involves some very back country driving and some serious winding mountain passes. Despite the near constant nausea from Dave's thrilling mountain driving, there were a few benefits to this approach. For one, the drive itself was not with out its charms. We saw adorable little towns along the way, ran into wild kangaroos in the national park (almost litterally), and generally got to see a lot of beautiful Australia that we never otherwise have seen. We also were practically (and sometimes actually) the only people on the road. On the way home we drove almost 4 hours on a dirt road in the mountains without seeing a single other person (we did however see wild emus, lots of cows and one mini-pony).
But I am ahead of myself. The first real challenge for my very talented husband was mastering driving on the wrong side of the road.
To his credit, he is a very good driver. Keeping in mind that "good" and "doesn't make me nauseous" are too different things. But years of experience have made him a skilled city driver and can give a New York City taxi driver a run for his money in crazy-traffic-maneuvering-skills, so I had only minor worries that he might kill us trying to drive on the right.
We took out the good insurance policy on the rental car. Just in case.
Turns out, he managed very well. There were a few near misses and almost continual hugging the of the left shoulder (which was particulaly appreciated when the left shoulder was a few inches of loose dirt before a 40 meter drop off to the valley below), but I can admit he did far better than I ever could have. He also gave the locals a laugh (and me too) by trying to get in on the passenger side of the car more than once.
As it turns out, the drive was more than half the fun. And the roadsigns provided their own fun for the ride.
KM? How many miles is that?
These are not even nearly the most interesting named towns we came across.
Koala Sign 1 (big tease- there were NO koalas)
Koala Sign 2.
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