Jindabyne

During the last week of August, a friend and I rented a car and drove to Jindabyne, New South Wales to visit some friends, see an Aussie hip hop show and go snowboarding. The drive from Melbourne took 8 hours, but it was worth it. Growing up in the Rocky Mountains and being spoiled by killer ski hills and epic mountains, I figured I'd be disappointed in what Australia had to offer as far as snow. But I wasn't. The scenery along the way and the town of Jindabyne among the Snowy Mountains was breathtaking too, so I'd like to share some of the images I captured on our trip.

On the way up the eastern coast, we stopped at a place called Lakes Entrance, a man made channel that links the Bass Strait and Tasmanian Sea to the Gippsland Lakes network. We pulled over at the top of a hill and took in the lovely views, then we made our way down to a small fishing area and hung out with some pelicans for a while. We switched drivers and were on our way again.

We arrived in Jindabyne late on Monday, with just enough time to meet up with our respective friends, organize accomodation and plan our trip to Perisher the next morning. We went up to the ski hill bright and early and had an awesome day, even though one of my friends did a faceplant and cracked one of his ribs... (He was a trooper and rode the rest of the day with us regardless.) Perisher is a pretty large ski resort, apparently one of the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. What it lacked in height it made up for in expanse; the resort comprises 4 villages linked by lifts and runs, and I even managed to lose my group of friends for a period of time when I took a different run than them and ended up in a completely different village!

On Wednesday night we went to the Seth Sentry show at The Station, the sprawling resort accomodation for Perisher. Before the show we did some hiking around The Station, saw kangaroos and deer in the wild, found a quaint little creek and climbed some trees. (I tried to get closer to the kangaroos to get some better pictures but they were spooked easily.)

For the rest of the week we chilled out in Jindabyne and did some hiking, wandering, eating and touristy things. Jindabyne is built on a huge man-made lake created by a dam, which we had to drive up to and see. The area is so picturesque... I'd like to return some day.