Ryan Down Under

The student association has been putting on trips that I have gone on in the past and this one was a ski trip to Mt Buller, about 3 hours north of Melbourne. I thought it would be such a novel idea to go skiing in August so I signed up. The not so novel part was getting up at 3am to be at the bus by 3:30 to start driving. We stopped in Mansfield, a town near the mountain, for a buffet breakfeast and to rent equipment. So far, not a sign of snow and I was still very sceptical that there would be snow at all. We rocked up to the mountain at about 9am and there was indeed snow on most of the hills. The conditions were what I expected them to be like at their best, but it was actually one of the worst seasons in the past years. I paired up with the other experienced skiers. It was a weird feeling to be a Canadian skiing in Australia because I found myself assuming that I was automatically so much better than everyone else. I didn't let my country down though thats for sure. I fanged down the slopes like it was my job, and made the guy in charge happy that he had someone who could set a good pace.
The mountain was probably one of the biggest I've actually been on and we made a point of walking to the summit (1805m, only 400 away from the highest point in Australia) from the top of one of the chairlifts. You can see a prism like box in the first picture where there is a fire watch station at the top. This photo is a view of only the top of the mountain and there is much more to it. Other than the snow on the slopes, there was none anywhere else and all that was visible was unspoiled forest in all directions. It was pretty cool when the low clouds blew into the side of the mountains and shot upwards too.
The weather was pretty awesome too I guess. It was proabably around 0 degrees with lots of sun, so very warm. We went to a shack at the top of the mountains and bought some spaghetti and ate it on the patio with the the scene from the first photo as our view. There was definitely a slightly different atmosphere here than in all the places Ive skied in Ontario and Quebec. I cant quite put my finger on it, but it was a nice change.
Heres one part of the difference: the price! A lift ticket for the day for a student was 71$!!! The ski rentals were 30$ and then the bus trip there, breakfeast and entrance fees to the national park we were in was another 60$. All in all, this day trip, done relatively cheap, came to a total of 185$ for everything. A bit steep, but a small price to pay for such a novelty. Novelty has definitely become a theme for the past 6.5 months which is perfectly fine. The next trip in the planning stages is the Beach Club trip to Queenscliff which is just the tip of the travel extravaganza that is about to unfold as my time winds down here in Australia.