Stack Galore

Snow boarding was awesome. I advise everyone to try it!

We set off super early to get to the airport, leaving our van in long term parking. We parked it next to a smart car so if any cars were gonna get broken into, ours wouldn’t. Jumped on the plane and flew to Canberra, now Canberra is pretty cold, compared to Brisbane at least. But that was just the start.

We jumped on the snoexpress coach and went for a 3 hour trip up to Perisher. It was really odd on the way there, it was all normal Australian landscape, then you could see snow on the hills a ways off, then you went through a few ski towns with fake snowmen all over the place and things felt a little more wintery. Then all of a sudden we were at the Ski Rider hotel and there was only a little spattering of snow.

We got checked in, and went to get our boards and boots hired.

We were like kids at Christmas after we got them, trying them all on and stuff. We were going to go up to the actual resort and have a little go, cos Sunday afternoons were free, no lift passes required. But we missed the last bus. So we just stayed in the hotel.

The hotel itself was quite a ways off the resort so you had to catch a free bus. It wasn’t too bad, but kind of got annoying after a few days. If you were actually staying on the snow you could easily nip in and out as you felt like it, we had to set off up there in the morning and kinda stay all day till you wanted to come back. There were lots of buses through the day, but it wasted a lot of time.

Anyhow, the meals at the hotel were awesome, kinda like school dinner’s but ten times nicer. Loads of choice as well.

Anyhow, next morning we went up to Smiggins Hole (an area of the resort) for our lessons.

There was a bunch of us waiting there at half nine, and we all got split into two groups of 10 and went off with an instructor. Ours was this girl called Hannah. We set off on this tiny little hill, walking up it and practicing coming down on our edges. After a while she took us onto the J Bar lift and we went up to the top of the run and came down,pretty ungracefully, but it was our first ever full run. So whatever.

We ended the lesson by going up the chair lift, and doing a more advanced run. It was an amazing buzz at the end. The last run we all felt like proper boarders. Pretty good going for one lesson.

We spent the rest of the day on the slopes practicing what we’d learned. It was hard work and we both decided to buy wrist guards in the morning, another few days of falling as much as we were and something would have broke.

We headed back for tea and a well earned nights sleep.

The next day only 5 people turned up, they must have been knackered.

We started practicing doing proper turns, left and right, using both edges. I fell loads doing this, Murd got it pretty much first time. At the end of the lesson Hannah told us tomorrow we would be going off to find somewhere that wasn’t full of people, and had nice fresh snow and we were going to do some jumps and stuff.

However, she didn’t turn up the day after, her car broke down or something, so we ended up merging with the other group of 5 dayers. At first we were worried that it was going to be a shit lesson. Hannah promised us something new but the guy we had now, Lachlan, kept us on the slopes. It ended up being really cool tho, rather than sticking to the tracks he took us through all the trees and lots of little jumps and such. We had a great time.

However, little jumps and sharp turns mean lots of falling, and Murd fell awkwardly on his knee and then on his thumb. After the lesson, we had a few more goes and he decided to head back, than risk twisting his knee more and not being able to carry on tomorrow. I spent the rest of the day on the slopes.

By the time I got back Murds thumb had swelled up huge and he couldn’t bend it. We thought it was broke.

We both got up at 6 the next morning. But his thumb wasn’t any better so I headed off to the lesson myself. Today the winds had really picked up and after 2 or three days of nice weather today was awful. All the little kid skiers were actually getting blown over, and that was only at the bottom of the hill. As you reached the tops it felt like you were getting sand blasted, any exposed skin was raw after a few minutes. I wisely bought a balaclava before our lesson.

The lesson wasn’t all that good either, Hannah didn’t turn up again, and only one girl showed up out the other group. We pretty much did the same as the day before, running through the trees and doing little jumps. It was fun, don’t get me wrong, but was a bit of a disappointment after Hannah said we’d be headed into the mountain. Oh well.

Friday was spent just returning our gear and packing up, we could have went up for a lesson in the morning, but apparently the winds were even worse. So I’m glad we never. Turns out Murds thumb wasn’t broken, just twisted or something. But by now we’d both managed to pick up sore ribs, legs, necks and shoulders. We were glad of the morning off.

We didn’t manage to take many photos, the weather wasn’t great all the time and we weren’t good enough boarders to chance carrying cameras around with us all the time. Heres a view from the top of one of the runs tho.

We’re back in Brisbane now, headed off again soon. Down south we think, towards Sydney or Canberra. Were thinking if we get close to Perisher, we” go out for another week. It was that good. I’ve liked it the most out of all the things we’ve done, and Fraser and SCUBA diving take some beating.

SSX

We just got back from booking our snowboarding trip. This traveling/adventure thing is just too easy.

We’re flying out from Brisbane airport on Sunday morning and flying to Canberra. Getting the bus from there up to the resort and getting checked in, rent our gear etc. Then its time to rip it up

We’re going to the ski resort called Perisher Blue, and are staying at the Ski Rider Hotel. It sounds awesome, the girl who booked the trip said if you stay in the Perisher village it’s pretty quiet, but the ski rider is more of a lively place, with its own live music sometimes, bars and such. It’s a little off the slopes, but that means it’s cheaper and you get a free bus up to the lifts, so all is good.

We’re only there for 5 days, originally we were thinking of a few week, but maybe that’s a bit too much. After the 5 days we fly back to Brisbane.

Was thinking about buying all our own gear, snowboard and boots and stuff. Partly because it’d be nice to have all your own stuff, and partly because it all looks so damn cool. A couple of boards would look sweet hung up inside the van, and you know it.

They’re expensive tho, so we’ll wait and see how we do. If we love it we can buy some stuff and then as we travel farther south passed Sydney and Canberra, we can do a bit more boarding.

We check out of this place tomorrow to move to another place, so I probably won’t have internet. You can, however, keep track of what I’m doing by reading the little twitter section I have to the top left. I can update it from my mobile and I’ll try and update all the interesting/important stuff I do.

Brisbane and twitter

So, back in Brisbane again.

It was nice to get back to somewhere familiar. We’ve been staying in motels rather than the hostel again, its a bit of a bad habit as it’s more expensive, but not in a huge way. It has the advantage of being much less hassle.

We again, haven’t really done a lot, we haven’t even gone out that much. That’s how we spent most of our money last time we were here. We did go out Friday, Saturday and then Sunday tho and are currently suffering for it. It’s all good tho. We met a few cool people.

We kind of have a plan for the next step and thats to go snow boarding. The more we think about it the more we wanna do it, now is the best time to go and we just have to decide where. Originally we planned to just go south where most of Australia’s slopes are, but someone recently told us the cheapest place to go would be New Zealand, even with the cost of airfare. It’s something to look into.

Hell, I just wanna buy a snowboard because it’ll look good in the van.

We’ve been meeting a few people, which is cool and all, and I’ve managed to stay in touch with a few through facebook and emails. It’s a little awkward tho, as you need a computer with an internet connection which isn’t always possible when traveling. So if you really wanna keep in touch, go read this.

ps. Hi Elaine

Taking It Easy

Haven’t updated this thing lately, mostly cos we’ve done nothing.

After being on the road constantly for a good long while, as well as the whole Yongala thing we decided we needed a break. So thats what we’ve been doing for two weeks. Nothing.

In the down time I’ve had the displeasure of watching a fair amount of Australian TV. To say it is cheesy is an understatement, and if there isn’tcheesy talk shows on its sport. Heh. It’s amusing, but gets kind of annoying. I’m sure it isn’t all as bad as I make out, theres probably a few decent shows that I missed.

Luckily we’re back on the road and are headed back to the bright lights of Brisbane.

After that, who knows?