Blip Blip went the GPS and a total of 292kms was laid out in front of us.
(That ladies voice has been a godsend but later in CBD Sydney our relationship would turn sour.)
Another tank of gas and we were off.
Victoria has been surprisingly green and now we were gonna see another side to this country –it’s Ski resorts.
Everyone we’ve spoken to had said that it’s been a great season for snow –but in the back of my head I REMAINED SCEPTICAL ABOUT HOW IT WOULD COMPARE TO –SOMEWHERE LIKE THE ALPS.
When we arriveds it was dark. Signs warned us of the need to carry snow chains so we parked up at an appartent toll gate and approached on foot. $32 bucks it would cost us to drive up the mountain and indeed we would ned chains. There was no camping on the hill itself so it was a 30k journey back to Mansfield for the most budget of budget accommodation.
We scoped out the cost of ski and jacket/pants hire and prepped ourselves for an early night and an early eager start: returning to the hire shop at 7am.
So the next day two dirty plates stained with curry sat in the wash basin and the only thing we were doing was hitting the snooze button –repeatedly.
The air outside our duvet was unwelcomin to say the least and the thought of getting up before daylight wasn’t entertained.
By 10am we were fully stocked with snow chains, boots, hats, glove, pants- you get the drill.
The accent in 3rd gear was great –The Prodigy boosted our spirits and awoke the adrenaline junky in us. Ski pass in hand we took the chairlift from the day car park straight to the peist!
At this point Deirdra shat herself –she didn’t tell me she was a woose when it came to heights and the massive drop bellow and accent into the clouds proved a little daunting for her. Bless. She was actually cool and we were both buzzing at what we were about to do.
Up there (about 6000 feet up) it was cold. Cloud had covered the peak and visability was about 30m at times. This made the whole thing kinda eerie. –Like being in heaven –with the central heating on the blink.
We started off slow and Deeds revealed a love of nipping in and out of trees and finding random jumps to tackle all over the place. I on the other hand was more about speed and we combined these two to make an interesting morning of messing about and finding our feet.
Come lunchtime we chomped sarnies in the village square (all 10 square feet of it) and then warmed up in a ski-wear shop (see: silly hats in the photo section at the end of the video).
That day we were the last people on the chairlift back down.
The next day we got up earlier. The sun was blazing. The ice was falling from the Cellphone towers and the snow was just as great.
Now we could really appreciate the beauty of the place and –we were blown away.
We went full throttle onto our favourite blue runs and tested all the rest before I jumped on a black mogul slope and left it knackered.
At lunch we sank a couple of beers and took some great photos. –We wanted to get all we could out of the skiing and all in all we definitely did.
We drove down the mountain that night exhilarated and munching on beef, cheese and onion pies. Next stop Canberra, on our way to Sydney!
