Skiing at Falls Creek - Yay!!!!

Well, we're back in Brisbane, back at the grindstone again, but for a brief few days we were having the time of our lives!

We flew down to Melbourne before the sun peeped over the horizon on Wednesday last week. It was a public holiday in Brisbane, since the Ecca was on (ie. the Brisbane Fair) - yes, yes, we will use any excuse for a holiday, that is very true!

So, from Melbourne we caught a bus to Mount Beauty where we stayed for 4 nights (see picture above left). Here is a photo of us in downtown Mount Beauty (above right) - almost a village actually, less than 2000 people live here. It was in fact very beautiful, as the name suggests, and the drive from Melbourne was picturesque with green fields, snow topped mountains in the background, and trees dotting the hills.

On Thursday, we caught another bus up the hill to Falls Creek ski resort. It was only about 45 minutes on the road, and a very pretty if somewhat sickening ride. Ski fields in Australia are very different to the USA, with snow gums everywhere, less snow and less people. Also, the altitude is much lower in general than the fields in Colorado or Utah etc, and of course being Australia it is more expensive too! Here is a picture of the ski slopes.

We had a great time skiing, and then caught the bus home to Mount Beauty again in the evening. The next day, we went back up to Falls Creek, and this time stayed for dinner. Both days ended in rain - which was a bit miserable to ski in, especially since I still had bronchitis - but it was only at the very end of the day, and so we finished up early and went inside to warm up with chips and drinks.

As you can see from the photo on the left, it was quite foggy at times on the slopes, which made it difficult to see where you were going. There are actually a lot of people all around me in the photo, but you can't see any of them...

We had a fantastic time, and didn't have any crashes or falls, so we were happy with that!

By the end of the three days of skiing, I was swooshing pretty fast down the slopes. It's been a year and a half since we last skiied - that was in Canada. We definitely missed Canada, but Falls Creek was fun too.

Saturday was a beautiful, clear day, and then we headed back to Brisbane on Sunday. We had quite a long layover in the Melbourne airport, but thankfully I was able to use my corporate Qantas club membership to get us into the lounge, so we were able to lounge on couches, eat, drink, watch TV, read magazines and generally enjoy some lazy time before catching our flight.

Here is a photo of us at the top of one of the black diamond slopes... I'm not a huge fan of skiing black diamonds, but a did a few of them and managed to stay on my feet so I was pretty happy with that.

Of course, black diamonds in Australia aren't really the same thing as in the US, Canada or Europe. But I'll take it!

It was really nice just to have some time to ourselves, as we've both been so busy lately with work and buying land etc. Since getting back we've hardly seen each other again, so it was definitely good to have a break.

Here is a photo of Eric hiding in some snowgums...

Another photo: at the pub after a long day of skiing!