How knackered are we?! We arrived back the the Snowys on Thursday absolutely knackered. I don't think i've ever been so tired.

On Monday 7th July we arrived at Jindabyne Snow Valley Resort at about midnight after a 6 hr drive from Sydney. We got our skis, boots and equipment sorted and went to bed ASAP!

Tues 8th July We were up and ready for 7am and headed off for our first day on the slopes at Thredbo Valley. Rach had never been skiing before so we thought it may be a good idea for her to have a couple of hours lessions on Friday Flats before she did anything else. I stayed to watch her learn/fall over. After she had, had her "crash course" in skiing we headed off to do a run. Unknowingly I took us on probably one of the hardest/ steepest runs called High Noon (should have guessed really) much to Rachels horror. We stood at the top of the run and a very worried looking Rach said "F**k me Soph I don't think Im going to make this one alive". Anyway after a bit of pursuasion she followed be down, there was less skiing as apposed to side stepping down the mountain. After realising we probably would'nt make it down before sunset with Rach side stepping all the way she took her boots off and decided to walk down. We managed to wave down a Skidu and the lovely man on that took her back to the top to the chairlifts and she got back down to the bottom that way. I'm very proud of her for trying though as it wasnt an easy run. The rest of the day was spent doing smaller runs so Rach to get her confidence up.

After the days sking was up we all went back to the resort for a dinner and a few drinks.

Weds 9th July again we were up and ready to hit the slopes at Thredbo for 7am. Again we did a bit on some smaller slopes so Rach to learn to link her turns and actually be able to stop and slow down (she got there in the end). We headed off to do a run called the "Walkabout" We got the lift up to the top of the run and head on our way. This run was alot higher than the ones we had done on the previous day and the scenery was beautiful. The snow was thicker, whiter, softer and blue underneith? By this point Rach had really found her legs or should I say Skis and was doing much better on them. Although there was alot of "F**ks", "Help", "I Can't stop" "SOPHIE!!!", "I Don't Like it" to be heard, echoing around the valleys. (Bless). We stopped for lunch at 1pm and then headed on back up the mountain to go abit higher. This run was quite icey, bumpy and over all a bit hearder but Rach coped well and was starting to really like being able to go fast (through choice) and being able to stop (through choice) where as before if she went fast it was because she had lost control and if she stopped it was because she had fell over. At the end of the day we headed off to a Shnappes Distillary to sample a few of the Shnappes that they had on offer. We tried Pink Lady Apple, Pear, Peach, Caramel. All were good but nither of us could buy any as we dont have any room left in our back packs.

We headed back to the resort for dinner and drinks in the bar. Wednesday is party night so It started off by me having 1/4 of a bottle of caramel shnappes poured down my throat by one of the reps. Rach managed to escape it by ditching me and running to the toilet!! (thanks dear). Then we brought 2 Jagerbombs (forced to of course) each which were lined up on the bar in whats called a JagerTrain (see pics). The Redbulls in a larger glass are lined up at the bottom then the Jaegermister in shot glasses is balanced on top. Using a domino effect all the shots fall into the larger glasses of Redbull to make a JaegerBomb. The night generally consisted of drink basically. We stumbled to bed at 2amish knowing we had to be up at 6am again!

Thurs 10th July We were up not so bright & breezy at 6:30am for our last day skiing. When we arrived at Thredbo it was snowing pretty heavy. We got on our gear and headed off in the chairlift up to Merritts (another run). As we were getting higher up in to the mountains it was getting colder, harsher and more blizzardy. Once at the top we were in a full blown blizzard. It was snowing so hard that when it hit your skin it stung! The visability was about 1-2 mtrs at the most. People would go past you and as soon as they had done that they were gone, you could no longer see them through the thick snow. It was at this point I turned to Rach to see the fear on her face and asked do you want to do this to which she replyed "b***** that im going back down on the lift, thats too bloody hardcore for me" again it was at this point I was thinking should I go back down with her? but I decided to go for it. Coming down you could not see further than 1 mtr in front of you and the wind was blowing so hard down the mountain you really have to concentrate on keeping your balance. I made it down in one piece in the end. Rach was waiting at the bottom for me in the River Inn (A Resturant at the foot on the Mountains) We had a Hot Chocolate and headed over to the other Valley on the shuttle bus to pick up some photos we had done at the top of High Noon the previous day by a photographer. We had some lunch and decided to have a snowman competition. In the end we just made the one as it was taking bloody ages. A little boy called Aaron from Sydney helped us. It was the first time he had seen snow so he was a little excitable and kept kicked Rachel's snowball which by this point was the height of her knees (so it was quite large) anyway, this little boy kept kicking it and Rach became very protective of it so she layed over it so he couldnt destroy it, he continued so she picked up what was about 15kilos and ran off with it saying" leave me ball alone!!" it was like watching 2 toddlers having an argument. We Finished our snowman and the little boy Aaron decided we should name it "WingTing" what ever one of them is? It made his day as it was his first time he had ever made a snowman.

We headed back on the shuttle bus to the other valley to get on the coach ready to go back to the resort to quickly change and get back on the bus to Sydney. What should have been a 30 min journey from Thredbo to Jindabyne Snow Valley Resort took 2hrs due to the blizzard and amount of snow that had fallen in the area over the course of the day. Cars had slid off the side of the road, people were stood about trying to dig their cars out of the snow and put on their tyre chains, snow ploughs were trying to get along the roads, snow patrol (no, not the group) were whizzing about and the quaues of traffic were miles long. We were travelling at about 10MPH up hills and around the sides of mountains with sheer drops on very icey, snowey roads. We were all abit concerned about the sheer drops and the bus sliding over the edge but at least we had tyre chains on. We were all bloody freezing as the heating only worked on the bus when the revs were high enough (which they wernt at 10MPH!) I could no longer feel my toes or hands and Rach had a draft bellowing around her face from the freezing cold, iced up window. Luckily we all made it back in one piece, had a quick change of clothes and jumped back on the bus for the 6 hour journey back to Sydney.

When we finally arrived back in Sydney, we checked into our room and jumped straight into bed. We were sooooo tired we slept till 2pm the following day.

We are back to normal now and due to head off the Perth tomorrow.

Bye for now.xxx