Winterhaus Lodge Thredbo Village

... the 13km trek would take up to three hours. At Thredbo we found only one lift to be working so that added a good very steep kilometre to our walk. The last chairlift stopped at 430 so we had roughly 4 hours to make the round journey. The walk was undulating through the park, with icy streams flowing under the track in places, still from the melting snows! As we neared the summit and with time running out we came across to large snowfalls across ...

... the Sydney Morning Herald and then fell asleep on the bed for most of the afternoon. Action tourism at its best!

Miles walked so far: 41 (but this excludes several trips into and out of Wellington and Sydney which have got to worth another 6-7 miles!)

Most ridiculous walking outfit of the day: So many to chose from – despite the numerous signs suggesting people dress appropriately for the mountain – which for all the ...

... br>
That being said when I stopped at the national parks office to get some info and pay my park fees and whilst running through the directions on how to get the top of Mt Kozy-whatsit she told me I could find the way to top by following the footsteps in the snow. Snow! Really? At the resort the temperature was 26c – can it really be cold enough just 1000m higher up to still have snow? Well, I guess I will find out tomorrow.
Thredbo, New South Wales, Australia doctormick

A Trekking Timmy G
Ok, the start of a great new adventure. Although i've been on one of these things before i didn't really know what to expect but was pretty open minded and excited to what i would get out of it, what troubles would inevitably lie ahead and more importantly what kind of people i would consider my new family for the next 3 to 4 - weeks.

After a ridiculously early start we stopped after a couple of hours for breakfast in a village somewhere ...

... an outdoor spa. we thought it'd be a good idea to get in. it wasn't! was still pretty chilly in there. however they did have a sauna downstairs and that was well worth it! after watching a bit of a point of origin game (massive rugby league game between queensland and nsw) i headed to bed. that game was actually ok, for rugby, and there was a quality punch up. was also funny seeing people drinking shots from a ski in the ...

We hebben bewust Canberra, de hoofdstad van Australie, naast ons laten liggen. Volgens iedereen is het een saaie stad. Vandaar dat we doorgereden zijn naar de Snowy Mountains. De naam verraadt al dat het hoger is dan de rest van Australie. We dachten dat het koud was is in de Blue Mountains, maar hier is het echt al winter...brrrr. Nabij Mt Kosciuscko ligt er al genoeg sneeuw voor een sneeuwballengevecht. 's ...

... 12hours later. Lets just say it was an extended roadtrip. Ah its was ok tho, we just missed one turn, it wasn't well signposted, so kinda went up the wrong mountain and did a little loop. There were also a few distractions along the way, like kangaroos, wombats, foxes and black ice and no phone signal for about 4 hours. We arrived..that was the main thing, and Sinead greeted us with a long awaited glass of roses. 10 of us stayed in a 3 bedroom ...

... h. The scooter behaved perfectly - only on one hill did she slip into neutral and I had to jump on the brakes to avoid the sideways slide into oblivion. It would be a long wait for the NRMA if we popped a tyre on this stretch. We made it without incident to Eucumbene Dam and it was quite a shock to see the water level 20m below where it should be. I have been to the snowy region many many times, but I have never seen it so dry before. The drought in Australia ...

... time for a quick sausage roll lunch, but it didn't taste that good anyway. (My sausage rolls that I made for the trip tastes much better.) Josh, Elyse, Hayley, Amy and I lined up for our ski lessons. Josh went into begginer group, Hayley and Elyse went into their suitable groups and Amy and I went into the highest skiing level. Amy and I were in the same group and it was just me, her and our teacher. Our ...

... desperation to smoke, and my admiration of her dog, I befriend the Italian restaurant owner, a friend of Pauli's. She lets is smoke in the restuarnat - in exchange for us promising to visit the Porcellino in Sydney. Much chatting to her and the Maitre d' later we leave, off to the hotel, to leave Pauli walking home looking rather folorn. I am really pleased we came, although our body clocks are now well and truly destroyed, we've had a good time, and it was fantastic to be able to see Pauli.