I can now say that I have seen, play and walk in snow after 3 years plus in Australia! Well, main reason being most of the areas in Australia don't snow in winter. The temperature is simply not cold enough for the snow to visit. Therefore we have to go up the mountains such as Mount Buller, Hotham and Falls Creek for the snow experience. It was such a fun and adventurous 3 days trip I would say. We picked Falls Creek as it is most probably not as crowded as Mount Buller, and as for Hotham somehow we just didn't thought of going there.
It normally takes about 6-7hours ride from Melbourne city to Falls Creek. Unfortunately, it took us way longer than that! We were stuck just before we reach Falls Creek due to rock slide and VicRoad decided that it is too dangerous and it is gonna take a whole night to clear the road. We were so shocked and worried at that point, it was our first snow trip ya see... So we had two choices, to return to Melbourne city; or to take the chance and stay overnight at the small town we were at, which is called Bright and hoping that the road will be cleared by tomorrow morning. But that means we will be having 2 days 1 night instead of 3 days 2 nights at Falls Creek. Anyhow we decided to wait till the next morning and I am grateful that we made that decision as the road was cleared by the next morning as promised by VicRoad.
I was so ecstatic seeing the snowy scenery, so white so picturesque! None of us has snow walking boots thus we were walking so carefully as it is quite slippery walking on the snow, way more slippery than we thought, not to mention dragging our luggages along to the accommodation. To avoid this, there is a transfer service that costs $20 per person per trip but our accommodation is nearby so we didn't want to pay for that.
We stayed at Elk at Falls and it is a really lovely apartment. It is a 2 bedrooms apartment with fully furnished kitchenette. And that is why we brought food over to have steamboat in the chilly night. A major plus point is the view from the balcony, so so so gorgeous I can't describe! Gasps! It's all snowy white, it's like a painting!
Our first group picture at snow mountain :D We were on our way to pick up our ski gears. The ski clothing are all waterproof, which is very important not only to protect against the wind/rain but is extremely helpful if you happen to fall down while skiing/ snowboarding or else you will be all wet. The ski boots and boards are not only picked best to your size, but also calibrated for accuracy. The ski gears are pretty heavy to carry. And the bulky ski boots are also quite stiff and tight, which is good to maintain your ankle position to avoid injuries but could be uncomfortable for first time wearer.
It works in such a way that we take chair lifts up the top and ski down, there are various slopes, in terms of steepness, distance and difficulty. All lifts were opened on that day but given our limited time on that day for us to learn to ski and actually started skiing on our own, we only bought the ticket with least lifts. We had about 2 hours beginner lesson to learn to handle the ski boards.
The lifts are not even like a cable car, it's basically just steel chair with handle!! And we had to carry the ski gears with our hands all the way up as we didn't even know how to fit it up with our ski boots at that point of time. I was trying to hold my ski gears tightly fearing if I accidentally let loose it will fell off, the long ride was not doing any good! Feeling the weight of ski gears and the never ending distance, the only thing that made it better was the breathtaking scenery, really. Why can't they have proper cable car so that we can rest the gears and enjoy the scenery?!
Also, snowman is not limited to movies anymore! There I seen it with my own eyes and even built one myself! Proud moment.. Don't laugh at how excited I was and still am, 'cause it was my first snowman ever in my life ok! As we were returning to the city the next day evening, we just rented the ski gears for a day. We decided to just walked around the village, just relax and have some fun. For me, it means snapping pictures all the way hehehe
I miss the scenery so much, so much more that I never thought of. It was simply unforgettable! Eventhough the trip didn't go according to plan at the start but I'm glad that we made the right choice and made it to Falls Creek in the end. It is definitely an adventurous one. Everything that was so perfect on Falls Creek redeem it all! One thing that made it not-so-perfect was that it didn't actually snow on that 2 days. Oh well, life is not always perfect isn't it? There's always possibility in life right? :)
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