I was talking to Amy last Tuesday for our nephews birthday and she encouraged me to write something about my holiday. Something small with pictures but I can never seem to do anything small, I apologise if this turns out to be pretty lengthy. Brace yourselves! Here we go =)
On the 5th of August my wonderful Husband turned 27. On the 14th of August I turned a mere 23. Just 9 days between the two birthdays and the perfect time to holiday. A few months ago I decided to pester Jake about us going on a trip with the idea to visit the snow. "We can go as a birthday gift" I said. "There's a special going at the moment with Mum and Dads holiday thing, very cheap". In the end I managed to turn him around to the idea. Yay! We organised our Annual Leave at work and managed to get from the 6th to the 15th of August off, and booked at our destination, Mansfield.
Jake's birthday didn't turn out the best. I worked full time up until we had to leave for our holiday and therefore didn't have much time to do things like shopping and other errands. On Thursday the 5th, our late night shopping night, I just had to go buy things. Jake definitely needed some warmer clothes and I just like to shop for me =p When I got home at 7 there wasn't any time for cakes and special wishes, we had to finish packing and get everything into the car for our early start Friday. It's just a good thing that Jake isn't much into celebrating his birth.
Friday dawned, after we'd already been up for 1.5 hours. There we were, up and out of the house, driving through the Adelaide Hills and beyond. Surprised? It didn't take us long to get ready and out of the house. It still took us longer then Jake was hoping though.
The rest of the day was spent mostly driving and chatting, Jake sleeping and me listening to music and reading. It took us 10 hours to drive over through the many towns and across the border, switching drivers regularly. We got into Mansfield, Victoria at 3pm our time, 3:30pm theirs. After finding our accommodation and checking in we unpacked and ate, watched a movie and then went to bed. It had been a long day and we were tired.
By the time we had awoken and organised ourselves the next day it was already 11. Jake had seen something about a lake the day before and so we went exploring. Lake Eildon turned out to be huge and not something we could actually walk around. We did venture a ways but eventually there was a puddle in the path that we just couldn't overcome. Jake did try to get over it but the log he'd stepped on wasn't stable. I held onto him the first try but fearing I might fall with him he told me to let go. On his second try to cross, the log moved under his weight and he cried "Hold on to me!" Of course I couldn't not laugh my head off as he almost fell in water and mud. =)
Due to drought and such the lake wasn't at his full capacity. I didn't take my camera with me and so have no pictures but I've found some on the Internet for you so you have an idea.
That is the entirety of the Lake Eildon. Big huh?
This is an example of what it looked like as we walked along.
During our walk back I tried navigating one of the many puddles we'd already crossed. After previously laughing at Jake for almost falling into the mud, it wasn't surprising when he started picking on me after I lost foot and shoe in a squishy spot. My shoes and pants covered in mud we laughed and continued to walk back to the unit.
For lunch we decided to go into town and see what was on offer. We stopped at a nice little cafe that sold baguettes and soups. After eating our fill we wandered over to the IGA to get some things we would need. That night we watched The Man From Snowy River, preparatory for our adventure the next day.
Horses! That's right, this day we woke early and went to a farm that ran Horse Riding Tours. It was awesome. There were just 4 of us on the tour. Another young couple from Perth and Jake and I. We got to walk, trot and canter the horses which were really quite fun; even for Jake who doesn't like horses.
Now, the reason we watched the Man From Snowy River the night before was because while on the ride we actually got to see the 'set' for one of the shots. For those of you who haven't seen the movie there is a scene where the actor and horse run down an unbelievably steep decline. We weren't on that same hill but we were on the hill opposite. Here are some pictures:
You can't really see it but the hill he jumped down is behind my right shoulder. About a quarter of the way from the edge of the photo to myself. There's a slight gap in the trees. You can see it when the picture is bigger.
Jake and myself! These were taken in black and white before I realised and I felt silly asking for more pictures. Oh well.
Me! We rode up this hill/mountain. Behind me is where we actually started from.
I wanted everyone to see the colour of my horse. Isn't he beautiful!? His name was Optus and Jake's horse was called .... I can't remember - Cosmo! That is what her name was.
While walking up the hill Rachel from Perth and I got acquainted. It was a peaceful 2 hour ride and quite enjoyable. I'd definitely go again. I was a bit sore at the end of it all but that was to be expected.
I think we read our books and Jake had a nap for the rest of that day. At some point I thought it would be fun to wrap my scarf around my head. I do have some pictures of it but I'm not going to show the world these ones =)
Just as an aside - My Kitty is sleeping on a pizza box. She's very cute.
The next day is Monday and it's time to finally see the snow! Yet again Jake and I slept in but that wasn't a problem. We hired some Ski gear and worked our way over and up to Mt Buller. When we got there we sorted out our gear and paid for a 2 hour beginners ski lesson. Jake had been previously when he was 12 but I'd never been Skiing before. I did pretty well during the lesson, falling over once! It wasn't to last though. When it finally came to going down the hill I fell over a total of 2 out of 4 times. .. I actually fell over more then that. Once was just while I was walking in Ski shoes, holding my Skis. Because of my falls I now have a bruised or fractured Coccyx Bone. It's not too bad though. Just a little tender.
It was a beautiful day to go Skiing, we were lucky. Only 5 degrees but it was sunny and I ended up taking clothes off. We enjoyed our skiing and went home very sore. We didn't actually take any pictures of us skiing or Mt Buller but here is a picture of the snow at the car park.
Snooow
Note to all: While Jake and I thoroughly enjoyed going Skiing we both decided that we wont ever go back to Mt Buller. As a mountain is wasn't very beginner friendly among other things. We'll try another mountain next time =)
Tuesday was originally going to be another day of skiing fun but because of the weather and because the other mountains were further away we spent the day in Mansfield. It was pouring with rain so there wasn't much we could do. We bought some books, had some lunch and had a look in a few stores before going back home again.
It was raining again on Wednesday but that wasn't a bad thing as we'd decided that we would go into Melbourne and see the Tim Burton Exhibition at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. I'd heard about it on an interview on ABC Classic FM and thought it would be interesting to go see.
We had a look around there and would've gone and seen a few other places around the city but because of the rain decided we'd just go back to Mansfield and eat some pizza.
Part of our holiday we had decided would be spent with Jake's sister who studies in Wagga Wagga; so on Thursday we packed up and that's where we headed.
This is a picture of the view from our front. It was very cold that day.
It was only a few hours of driving to Wagga. We managed to arrive at the perfect time! Just before 5 so we could find a McDonalds and have Chocolate Sundais before heading to the house.
I'm going to post this blog and do another one for the rest of it. I'm afraid that it wont let me post it because it's too big. Let us see! =)
1 comment:
It worked! Yay
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