Snowy Mountains: Australia

I guess lots of people living in US and Canada will call us crazy but we do drive 7 hours to play with snow. There is no snowfall in Sydney so we have to jump into a car and drive almost half a day to reach Perisher or Thredbo to play with snow during winter. And last weekend that is what we decided to do, take a visit to a winter wonderland :). We were 8 people altogether which included my hubby, my cousin K didi, her husband and her son and 3 of their friends.

So we left Sydney after work on Friday to be get to the mountain early morning Saturday. The drive down there was not much fun as it was cold and dark. We stopped at one shop for coffee and cookie and to hire some gear.

We hired snow trousers, jackets and walking boots. We all decided to hire toboggans instead of ski or snow board because it is much easier. I fell so many times while trying to learn how to ski in the past that it was not fun at all. Generally a normal skier would spend the majority of their time skiing and a fraction of their time falling so I knew already that I don’t have ski genes within me. And ohoo how can I forget all the pain and body aches the next day. I really wanted to avoid that this time as my body is still in recovery mode from last weekend’s City2Surf run.

Anyway, from there our next stop was the Perisher valley. Perisher Valley (elevation 1720m) is a ski resort village in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, in the Snowy River Shire. It is located within the Kosciuszko National Park between beautiful Jindabyne and Charlotte Pass on the Kosciuszko Road.

The place looked really beautiful with snow everywhere. We got lucky as it snowed the day before so there was 27cm of fresh snow to play with. The lift to the mountains was not opened then so there were not that many people around. I have to admit it was really cold so we decide to have breakfast before we stared to play in the snow.

After breakfast we took our toboggans and made our way uphill. First we stared on a small hill to get the hang of the toboggan and later went to the big hill. My nephew who is nearly five was enjoying his ride as well. He would come down and immediately walk his way up the hill. It was a really exciting experience. After may be 10 rides, it started getting hot but AS didn’t let me take my jacket off as he said I might get sick later. I know he does look after me  🙂

We also had some fun with snow war. As we were talking photos, I went and stood behind AS. So while he was posing, I took a heap of snow and started the fight. I knew he was not going to leave me alone after that. It was so much fun. Later everyone joined the fight including my nephew who was having the time of his life.

How could a snow trip be successful without a snowman? Someone started the snowman on the top of the mountain which we continued and he looked beautiful with my gloves and muffler :). We all posed to take our photo with the snowman.

By midday we all were starving so we decided to have a break and went for lunch. We had brought some dry home cooked lunch and it tasted the best after so much energy was lost. On the way to the eating area it started snowing as well.

After the break, we took our toboggans again and continued the ride for rest of the day.

On the higher hills, I could see people skiing and snowboarding. I do want to learn how to do that well without falling of course but I really enjoyed what we did.  It was really fun. Planning for next trip to snow already for the next year  🙂

Please click here for more photos.