Australia- Part 5- Snow time @ Perisher

The drive was lovely, but ultimately exhausting and we were glad to pull in to the town of Jindabyne, which would serve as our home base for skiing in near by Perisher and Threadbo. Australian ski mountains haven't fully adopted the US model of having a full-service town and accommodations at the base, so we stayed between the two resorts and drove to the mountain in the morning.

The first morning, we were met with that ubiquitous problem at ski resorts.....ski traffic. And all the cars on the road turned out to be a bigger problem than just slow-driving. We were told as we entered the National Park that there was NO parking at the Threadbo resort! No parking? At a ski resort? Crazy talk. Being the self-assured Americans we are, we continued to drive 30k up the mountain only to realize that they were serious, there was no parking anywhere! People were lined up all along the highway, willing to schlep themselves and all their ski gear down a massive hill to the lifts. I don't like walking 2 feet in ski boots, so a long hike in boots was out of the question. So we promptly turned the car around and headed to Perisher in hopes of more plentiful parking.

We found parking.... sort of. 

Here we are, parked on the side of the road. Realllllllly far from the resort. 

Thankfully there was a shuttle, or I might have sat down in the road and cried! After all this parking drama, we finally made it to the snow!

Happiness is fresh snow and a blue sky. 

Taking a much needed break. 

That is right- this sign is for T-bars. I haven't taken a T-bar in forever! In fact, I actively avoid them, which is easy enough to do in Colorado. But here in Aus, it was standard transportation. We got the hang of it, but there were some dicey moments each tow. 

Check out these crazy lifts with the bar in the center! 

We're at the top of the world!

And after a hard day of skiing...there is nothing better than a lounge chair and a frosty beverage.....

before getting ready to do it all over again the next day....

Australia- Part 4- Road Tripping

Soon after we bid farewell to Ned Kelly and gang, we found ourselves out of civilization and in to the bush.

On the road again....

Yay for Kangaroos and Wombats!

Dave is more subdued in his marsupial enthusiasm. 

It's pretty out here in the bush!

Our trusted ride. 

You know what these cows say? 

"Mooooooo, mate"

After some lovely hours in the country side, we finally made it to the mountains. And it was soooo beautiful!

At the first sign of snow the little boy couldn't help himself and just had to throw a snowball. 

Luckily for me, he missed. 

Good little car made it up the first of the mountain passes.

And... the moment you have all been waiting for........OUR FIRST KANGAROO SIGHTING!

KANGAROO!

Dave quickly learned on this trip that frantic squeals followed by"stop the car, stop the car, stop the car" meant there were marsupials near.  We found these cuties in the National Park. 

 

Some of our little friends hopped off along the road. But one guy really couldn't be bothered. 

I tried to get a great video of how funny these guys looked when they were hopping, but as you will see, I managed to get a lot of Kangaroo eating and scratching instead.

Australia- Part 3- Outlaws and Pickelets

What is a pickelet you ask? Well we asked ourselves the very same thing. And it turns out- a pickelet is a very good thing. 


Our only real stop along the way to the mountains on Saturday turned out to be Glenrowan, Victoria. Our arrival here was almost entirely random and to understand how we ended up here eating pickelets and learning about famous Aussie outlaws, we have to go back to our Honeymoon stop-over in Hong Kong, where we stumbled upon (with the sound guidance of Lonely Planet, no doubt) an Aussie bar called Ned Kelly's Last Stand. Now, I am no Aussie history buff, so I just thought it was a cute name and thought very little of it. We proceeded to get absolutely annihilated on free shots provided by the proprietor. 

Us, having a great time at Ned Kelly's in Hong Kong. 

Back in Australia, we happen across a highway sign for none other than Ned Kelly's Last Stand! The original bar? No, as it turns out (and Dave "claims" he knew all along) Ned Kelly was a infamous Australian outlaw and he really did have a last stand. And as it turns out, his famous last stand happened to take place over a hundred years ago in a town right along our route to the mountains! Imagine the coincidence. So clearly, we had to stop and check out the sights. 

This is Ned Kelly. 

As we quickly found out, Ned Kelly was an Irish-Australian infamous for his cattle rustling, criminal feats and defiance of colonial authority. His illustrious criminal career came to an end in 1880 here in Glenrowan when Kelly and his gang confronted police in home made iron armour made from farm equipment. 

Pretty crafty eh? 

Unfortunately for Ned, the armour wasn't enough and after a dramatic and deadly shoot-out, he was eventually taken down by the police thanks to a few shotgun blasts to his legs and was later hung in Melbourne. 

Ned Kelly and his gang have a following in Australia similar to that of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid do in the US. Some people think he was a common criminal and others revere him as a revolutionary and the Ned Kelly legend has become a part of the Australian folklore. 

Replica Kelly Homestead

Dave in the gaol.

After a great time at the museum, we were off to the shop next door to discover some fantastic Australian cuisine. 

OK, scones I am cool with. But damper? Fluffy Pickelets? No idea. But our interested was peaked and despite having already had breakfast, we were in the market for some Aussie specialties. 


And it was delicious!

A pickelet turned out to be a lovely little pancake which came with homemade raspberry jam and fresh whipped cream. 

And this is damper. Which is a slice of yummy bread off of a massive round bread/scone creation, served with fresh butter and an abundance of home made jam. 

What was VERY funny about this very small little town is that it seemed to have the whole Curtiss family covered....

Here is Dad & Dave's 

And here is Linda's.

(Sorry Ben, no store for you and I) 

After being sufficiently carb-ed up from our little mid-day snack and having received our daily dose of culture, we were back on the road. 

Australia- Part 2- Driving on the Right

Our Australian plans were ambitious to say the least.

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. 

Report from the Land Down Under

Get ready- this will be the first of a marathon of posts about our amazing, wonderful, fabulous, spectacular trip to Australia. We had SUCH a good time it will be hard to capture all the fun in a few blog posts- but I took hundreds of pictures that are just begging to be posted, so you will have to bare with me.

Here is a little preview of the highlights:

Australia- Part 1- Visa = Fail.

After digging out our long lost and nearly forgotten winter clothes and skis out of the bomb shelter, and then looking at them with wild fascination trying to remember a time when fleece and wool were appropriate, we managed to pack up our ski bag and find enough warm clothes to last us a week in winter, and we were off to Australia.... or so we thought.

After a busy day at work for both of us and a mad dash to the airport, we waited in long crazy lines at Emirates airlines, arrived at the ticket counter and of course explained a few times that the large black bag was in fact skis, not golf clubs, and thought we were all set... only to be confronted with the following problem.

Turns out you need a visa to enter Australia....

Ticket Counter Woman: And where are your visas?
D&E: We dont have visas, we dont need them
Ticket Counter Woman: Yes, you do
D&E: No. We don't. We're Amerrrriicaaaan citizens. (smugly satisfied at the superiority of our nationality)
Ticket Counter Woman: (baffled by aforementioned smugness) You. need. a. visa.

That's right, at this point, I am in full fledged panic mode. A Visa? To Australia? Are you serious? I thought our nations were friends? I don't need a visa to enter Malaysia but I have to have one to enter Oz? You must be mad.

D&E: *Sadly, forlornly looking at the well packed ski clothes with visions of snow and kangaroos swirling down the drain of defeat.*

To be honest, I didn't even consider the possibility that we needed visas so didn't even bother to google the matter until we were sweating bullets at the counter waiting for our fate to be decided by an unfriendly airport staffer. But, as google confirmed- even Americans need visa's to enter Australia.

The ticket counter woman finally returned with a grim look on her face and reported that we did in fact need visas.... *long dramatic pause*... but they could be purchased for S$50 each from the airline. What is funnier than the fact that she could have just told us this 10 minutes prior and saved me an ulcer, is that she looked at us as if we might actually refuse to pay S$100 for the ability to continue with our trip. Yes lady, after spending thousands of dollars on airfare, rental cars and hotels- and hours of planning and even more hours of giddy anticipation, we are going to pack up and go home instead of forking over S$100. Please. Little did she know she could have extorted more money out of our snow-deprived-selves and turned herself a tidy little profit.

So, S$100 lighter, we were off to Australia (by way of the bar, were a few Tiger beers were obligatorily pounded before boarding).

In a saving grace move for Emirates air, once we boarded, we were treated to multiple beers by the flight attendant, who must have sensed our deep exhaustion and need for hops-induced slumber.

And when we woke up... we were in Oz!