snowboarding in snowy mountains

I have been traveling a lot lately and my computer has been doing very strange things, not even to be explained by the computer experts having spent several of their jouvenile years on the beautiful art of hacking. Still, my internet access is pretty restricted, not the fastest and most accessible broadband in the world I tell you :)

I have been to Brisbane, the Gold Coast, several small towns therearound and Townsville. The pictures will come as I will have the time to upload them.

Two weekends ago, me and Bastian, a German friend of mine, working in Australia on similar terms, went south to the Snowy Mountains, very close to the boarder of Victoria, but still in New South Wales, even though it's closer to Melbourne than Sydney... We drove through Canberra and got to Thredbo, which showed to be the most snoby ski resort in Australia, on Friday evening. Thredbo is full of nice cars, rich people and, during the wintertime, it is one of a few skiing bases in the Snowy Mountains. This weekend, the European population of Thredbo accounted for two, including my friend and myself. The prices are a bit high, we payed 75AUD per person per night in a 4-bed dorm room. Off-season, the same costs something like 20AUD. The day pass was following similar pricing strategy.... but who would say no to an opportunity of snowboarding in Australia? :D

The highest peak was at 2030m, with a very cosy blizzard at this altitude. The snow and the overall experience was much better than I expected, although there was no powder and much ice, it was great for a weekend. and for Australia :)

In the dorm we met a guy having a Swedish mother, he didn't talk Swedish though. And during our cosy evening, reading books at the fireplace and talking to a university professor from Sydney, we were joined by an Aussie, who had spent two and a half years in Östersund and was pretty eloquent in Swedish. Odd, but real :) It was a great weekend! We also saw a couple of kangaroos, and managed not to hit any of them while snowboarding.... :D

el rei

click the image to view large

australian marketing

found on the saturday shopping tour. did not know whether i should wave to him, laugh at him or kick him in the butt (he was certainly asking for it).

so i shot him. with a 4MB piece of arms. very pacifistic :)

even more mtb

a couple more photos from the mountains. btw, great game yesterday, ey :)

you talkin' to me?

drinking electricity

upwards....

where did the road go....?

everybody sing with lucky luke: I'm a poor lonesome cowboy.......

the ride

Andrew, the financial controller. also very skilled in breaking bicysle parts....

walk/runners. we passed them laughing going downhill and were passed laughed at when Andrews chain broke :) Grüss euch!

The source of energy. outperforms duracell. (Polish plum chocolate-covered plum for the ignorant reader :)

yes, there was a river to pass. no gators. i think.

suspension bridge and the coolest guy :)

bush mtb

last weekend I suprisingly entered the australian crazy mountainbiking association and joined our financial controller and his cool mates on a 41km tour in the blue mountains. he asked me to join them at 5pm friday afternoon, picked the redeyed me at 6am on saturday morning and we all went to katoomba, where a tour guide was waiting with the bigger version of a surfer's bus. the crazy drive ought to be able to cause a heart attack, but we arrived somewhere at 1500meters and did a crazy downhill for some k's, followed by very nice and steep uphills, stairs, gates, rocks, rivers and, a thrilling suspension bridge....

the bus of joy

rollin' rollin' rollin'....

hit the road jack!

the source of information

no posing here mates! just rudeboy bikers....

more pictures will follow :)

swedish surprise

Found in a restroom in katoomba, blue mountains, new south wales.

First Ikea, then Volvo and now SCA. From Göteborg, Sweden.

state of art

origin of state of origin.

a big game was played in Oz tonight, a game of rugby. And not any rugby.

the game is a mix of football and fight club, and when it's played between the states of Australia, they call it state of origin. the players play for the state they started to play in. Hence the name. state of origin.

it's a huge thing over here. more than 50.000 aussies saw it in the stadium, and at least as many in my local pub. Queensland beat New South Wales (the state we're in) (didn't chemical brothers use this phrase already?) but beer in just the right ratios makes people happy anyhow. there's a lot of franziskaner in yours truly at the moment.

and he's got to work at nine. see you tomorrow! cheers!

Fredrik and Martin, try to get his cola!