It isn’t customary for me to take shots from the car while I’m driving, so, though it can be a bit challenging for me to not be the driver especially from a carsick point of view, it was good to have the camera to keep my focus outside the vehicle. I managed to turn out one or two driving shots that are interesting enough to make it onto flickr. This place looks cute… don’t imagine you’d see much of it in a snowstorm though…

The bulk of day two of the trip was spent checking out Thredbo the only field with a chair that runs in the summer time. They appear to get a fair bit of traffic even at this time of the year, most of them are tourists checking out the mountains, you can see from the image below a bit of the lay of the land. The lift we went up on Kocsiuskzo Express Chairlift and many of these photos were taken from there or on the lovely walk across the top of the mountains. Next time I go I’ll go a bit better prepared with bug spray the flies were REVOLTING and swarmed on us… really ewww… oh and I’ll take warmer gear and water, and most importantly allow a bit more time up my sleeve for exploring. I’d like to get a look at Mt Kozciuskzo sometime. To see the detail you really need to open the pic in flickr and check it out in the large view.

We rode the lift up (like duh) and the light got a bit weird at one point (or my camera did.. who knows?) and this image was the result… I think it looks like a reasonable set for a horror flick, don’t you?

As noted in the previous post Australia has an ‘alpine’ (ish) region… ok, so our
Alps aren’t really alps, too short and flat if Yay’s impeccable recall of relevant school facts are to be believed (I have no doubt that they are). So the Australian alps are nothing to rival Ms Mac’s rampant Swiss variety, but they are clearly enough to produce a 14 week ski season at the appointed times (all going well). Truth is if you’re totally mad keen to ski a LOT then you’d go to NZ or to the US (yes, or Europe) but to scratch that itch without having to pay screeds of dollars and spend ridiculous amounts of time traveling you really can get reasonable relief here…
However, let’s not dwell on the white cold stuff of which I’m not exactly enamoured…
I think you’ll agree it’s pretty darn pretty in the summertime too!

This is a stitched pano from the lift terminus. You really need to embiggen it to get its full effect…

This is looking back towards the chairlift terminus that grey square in the middle.

Assorted Rocks

Alpine flora

Summer Use of the Mountain

Jindabyne services 4 principal ski areas. Thredbo, Perisher Valley, Blue Cow and Charlotte Pass. Perisher and Blue Cow are run by a single outfit primarily owned by the infamous Packer family and are usually known as ‘Perisher Blue’, Thredbo is run by another outfit and Charlotte Pass by a third. (Like you care really)… anyway, the Goodtime crowd have a long-standing arrangement with Charlotte Pass so we got a first hand look at a ski resort in the summer time… enough of an incentive to want to see it in winter. The photos of the place under a cover of snow are like a fairy story… still… it’s pretty attractive in the summer time too!!!

Charlotte Pass. The large building in the front is the main lodge. Just like a bought one, old fashioned wood fires huge high ceilings, a bar and a nite club and 5 star meals. Looking forward to heading back there in winter some time.

Random Lake – on the road out of Charlotte Pass. Another of my ‘taken from the car shots’
It was a cracker of a day, we slept well our 2nd night of the Goodtime experience. It didn’t hurt, that as I was travelling with the blender we turned out a respectable margarita or 2 to go with our nachos for dinner… Can anyone say ‘Olé’?

There’s quite some distance between Sydney and Melbourne not exactly one you’d
want to drive in a day… So it behooves one to find a place to stop on the way.
We did.
Shoe has relatives at Jindabyne, an alpine town that was reborn during the building the Snowy River project. Do you know the Snowy River? It’s a rather ambitions hydro electric power project based in Australia’s only alpine region (I know, alps, in Australia, who’d have thought?!).
It is ironic that even getting to Jindabyne was not without its stories. The drive to Jindabyne from Sydney takes in Goulburn and then Canberra and in all probably took around 5 hours to complete.
Goulburn is a country town and hub or much of the rural populace of that area. It reminds me a little of some of the towns in NZ in terms of what’s available and the feel of the place. One of the icons of road travel is lunch at the Paragon Café. “Here you go luv. pie and chips” and who are we to balk at such a trend…

The pie and chips filled the gap as did a visit to the local Sanity record store where we did what we could to augment our listening pleasure for the long stretches of driving and to bolster the local economy with our hard earned cash.
Goulburn’s other claim to fame is the ‘Big Merino’ a nod to the prosperity gained at that great breed’s indignity (well, have you ever seen a shorn sheep? Poor nekkid wee things…) as you can see, he’s a little shy and takes advantage of road furniture to preserve his identity.

On the way out of town we hit a rather impressive hailstorm. (A hailstorm – welcome to summer in Australia…) and so we had to park the car on the side of the road and ride it out there was certainly no driving through it. Visibility was dreadful and actually, the hailstones weren’t exactly small… it wasn’t until we stopped in Jindabyne that we could check that there wasn’t any damage done to the car. Bit of a relief as the Golf is new and damage so early in its tenure would have been rather upsetting to its ever-loving owner.

At the mercy of the weather gods…

Ground Cover.
As we got higher in altitude on the road between Canberra (we didn’t stop there… seen it… got the t-shirt) much of the pasture took on a purple hue… that swathe in the middle of the picture is actually purple… sorry dodgy camera phone shot!!! I had to ask once we reached our destination what it was… apparently it’s called Patterson’s Curse and is safe pasture for cows but does horses a terrible disservice… Good to know for when I’m ever grazing horses…

Anyway, we finally made it to Jindabyne in the early evening and our hosts couldn’t have been more hospitable. For their blog-safety let’s just call them Mr. and Mrs. Goodtime… Barbeque dinner on the balcony overlooking lake Jindabyne… didn’t I mention Jindabyne had a lake?? Oh… it’s all part of that Snowy River Scheme apparently the town got flooded out when the lake ‘went in’ mad crazy things these power schemes do…

The view from the Goodtime Estate…

I’m enjoying a coffee and a tidy up of the last minute online things that need doing before I go away into ‘internet-access unknown’ territory for 10 days!!! In that time comments will be moderated (as they have been for a week… I’m still having trouble getting MT to recognize those I trust not to write spam in the comments) so, sorry you’ve had to wait to see your comment love published!!
Christmas day was a lovely one starting with a traditional midnight service at a wee local anglican church… It think it’s the first non-‘wave your hands and clap for Jesus’ service I’ve been to in [eep] at least 5 years. There’s something about the traditional quiet reverent service that was just lovely, and something we miss in the rampant celebratory type parties I’ve been used to of late!
The day itself was spent with Kirk and the family, Kirk’s little fellow is known around here as my little squire and he and his cheeky monkey sister had a fabulous day and kept us entertained. It was the first day I’ve had in I don’t know how long when there was absolutely nothing I HAD to do. No client jobs hanging over my head, no papers to write… so there was absolutely no reason I couldn’t spend much of the day playing ‘Grim Fandango‘ I played it for the first time in 2000 so 7 years later there are still lots of surprises!! I’m not even halfway through and as it’s more simple than MYST and some if its counterparts I’m loving not having to play with a walk-through close at hand!!! Needless to say, the Mac and the games are coming on hols, even if there is no internet access there is still digital fun to be had!!
So, if our motel room doesn’t have internet (yeah, likely) I’ll see you in a week or two!!! (If I haven’t been to an internet cafe for a fix before then!!). Happy New Year!

Exhale.
Here I am in meek and mild NZ, ok, not meek but the weather is mild today… I’m in jeans and a jumper/jersey/sweater and the sky is grey. Actually, it’s lovely… and even a bit rainy… I’d forgotten what rain looks like!
I am coming down off the most busy 2 weeks I’ve ever had. And I hate saying that, I hate that busy has become the definition for my world. The bugger is that it’s true. In spite of that it’s been very satisfying finally ticking off all the little jobs that mean I’ve tied up all the loose ends at one house and can start getting things settling in at the new.
At least when I get home I can start settling in…
Now that some of the little bits and pieces have been fixed.
Like the hot water system…
And the bathroom door…
It’s like this (and to pre-empt any other questions, yes I did get the house I wanted. A 1 bed unit, combined living/kitchen, massive bedroom/office, garden flat – affordable, and all mine, all to myself!!).
I moved in on Tuesday, had the men dump all my stuff in the house (this was after they’d attended to the wall they knocked down at the last one… don’t ask) and showered (ice cold). I plugged in the hot water and the fridge and left the house for work (some things don’t stop…) noting as I did that when I plugged in the fridge it didn’t give off that hum… the one that says “I’m on!”.
I figured I’d figure it out when I got home and when I finally did the fridge was warm.
This is not good.
The rest of the short story is that I finally connected with the emergency electrician and between us we figured out that the hot water cylinder was forcing the circuit breaker to trip.
Cue Electrician to visit to diagnose cactus water heater and cue plumber to replace the thing.
So by Wednesday I had hot water… hurrah.
Friday comes and the first visitors arrive to have a quick look round and pick up keys to the house for the house sitter and keys to the car for the car sitter.
And then my ride to the airport shows up, has a look round and borrows the loo.
And gets locked in.
Locked into the toilet – this is a problem when I need to get to the airport on time.
Cue Handy Man… who arrives just as I break CoverAll out of the toilet louvre windows.
and so I’m hoping that the toilet door has been repaired… as we had to leave and let him fix it without us…
So, here I am in NZ and my heart rate has finally slowed to normal, my churning stomach has reduced to a vague queaze and v shortly I’m off to see Lil’ Sis.
In the meantime I’ve brought Series 2 of House M.D with me and I’m hot on the heels of episode 4…
Holidays are good.
V Good.