Roadtrip!
We wake at 7am and pack, scheduling to leave latest 8.30am on a 6-7 hour (non-stop, but obviously we’re going to stop at least twice) drive to Thredbo (where the snow is.) I’ve come a long way from my totally insane freak-out on our first trip to Perth when Rockstar was 11 months.
(Napkins. Baby food. Piles and piles of bibs and t-shirts and sheets and blankets. Bottles. All ziplocked and chucked in a giant cardboard box we checked in (and yes everything duplicated in small amounts in hand-carry). We even bought bottled water because someone told us their baby got diarrhea throughout their Aussie trip as she wasn’t used to the different water that they mixed her formula in. (Not unclean, just different mineral content – apparently Aussie water is quite different from Singapore water if you formula-feed younger babies.) So we got Rockstar used to drinking easily-available-wherever-we-traveled bottled water like Evian. Not that we necessarily expected he would actually get diarrhea, but we alternate mineral and tap water as a reflex nowadays.)
Dryer. Washing machine. Bathroom. Bedside tables. Wardrobe. Behind the door. All check – nothing left behind.
– Rockstar?
ZZzzzzzzzzzzz
Really didn’t expect him to sleep in, especially not with us bustling about, or I would’ve dressed him the previous night in his travel clothes. Ah well, at least he’s safely in the bed while we clear all the other areas up. Kings can be quite a tornado.
Switch off lights. And heaters. Clear fridge. Pick up paperbag of Rockstar’s spare change of clothes and snow-wear (he’s going to jump in the moment we drive up). Pick up apartment keys to lock up, drop off.
Not-quite-sleeping-anymore-child
And yes – pick up sleeping PJ-clad child.
(We told him the night before to expect to travel early. We’ve found he acts up more if we don’t prepare him for things but when we do or when we explain it away he rarely flips.)
And the circus hits the road.
Circus Rockstar dressed and carrying Expensive Dog From Luna Park (this is possibly the first pic we have of him holding a plush toy ok...)
Driving along...
There are like, 5 or 6 Mc Donald’s along the way, not counting also Hungry Jacks and some other fast-food.. The cafe thing we stop at is not much better, and we watch with dismay as a tour bus starts unloading a seriously big bunch of Putonghua-speaking Asians. We’re thinking long, long queues for the toilet, super-crowded rowdy diner, and almost drive off to the next stop, but then decide to stick around for a few minutes. Upon closer inspection majority of the bus passengers are tweens, with a few adults among them – and are actually speaking at a way lower decibel level than we’ve come to expect from living in Northasia. The kids are very well behaved – after the toilet break some stop to buy takeout and play the arcade game in the corner before boarding the bus.
So glad we didn’t drive off. The toilets are clean, dry, odorless. Most people actually don’t dine in and we have a quiet breakfast – which is unfortunately super greasy. Rockstar grumbles that his milkshake looks like it came in a bucket again.
Rockstar entertaining himself on iPad while Kings queues for breakfast
Then at Cooma we pass through a residential area on the way back to Snowy Mountains Highway – passing 3 church buildings that are literally across the roads from each other. Hmm. Maybe they’re different denominations?
Random pic as we leave Cooma
When I start at a dead animal about the size of a Cocker Spaniel lying on the side of the road with its stiff legs in the air, Kings tells me he’s counted at least 10 roadkill, “mostly kangaroos and bear-things” (by which I guess he means wombats).
Rockstar missing roadkill
Toilet in the middle of Nowhere (Kings says this one was quite yucky though)
We arrive at the little town 4.15pm to find we’re kinda early for dinner. Most if not all eats open about 5pm. Rockstar’s hungry (well of course he is, he had brunch, a small snack, then nothing til now – in fact he hasn’t been eating that well this whole trip and it’s starting to bother me) and T-Bar has pizza to offer before 5pm.
T-Bar tucked in a corner of the little skiing town at Thredbo
I pick the squid, the waiter reminds me the kitchen isn’t ready for another 20 minutes, then returns in 5, triumphantly bearing the very yummy salad – that’s the first time I’ve ever had squid (I thought they were like deep fried calamari, they’re not) in a salad and there’s an exquisite tangy flavor, not just your usual balsamic vinegar.
It’s dark around 6pm when we check in… I find the room very expensive for pretty standard amenities but partly because it’s peak season and we booked late, partly I pass judgement on snow stuff as being an expensive hobby…
Reception area the following morning
But then in one of the cafes in the morning I observe the young couple at the next table on serious coffee date (I guess eating out is quite expensive, easily comparable to nice restaurants in HK; this couple is not really “eating out,” just sitting together with a coffee – which I get from overhearing their conversation- they are so disappointed when the table they really wanted to sit at is taken up by an old-timer with a newspaper while they’re getting their coffee) and I think they probably worked college-break jobs and saved up to come here.
It occurred to me this is all stuff I missed out on on at their age. Yeah I worked hard like they probably did, maybe harder, but I used to use vaccies for learning things or chalking up school extra-curricular activity points <sheepish> it’s got nothing to do with “work attitude,” I don’t mean to say I’m uh, “hardworking” – it was just that somehow 10 years ago I would not have considered a vaccie like what this young couple are doing.It simply would not have occurred to 25-year-old me. Not hardworking so much as “blinkered”. Like what they put on horses to drive them in one direction.
Anyway I didn’t have a thing for travel and found it an extravagance even though lots of friends were doing it. And I hated the seriously broke feeling coming back from our honeymoon. Kings of course is a bit more erm, “normal” about this, he’s been on budget trips during uni days – so the first time we went on one of these he pretty much ignored all my excuses – booked everything and said “yeah, uh-uh, and this is where we are going.”
Rockstar, no doubt, is living a childhood much more privileged than his parents (well d-uh.)
View from balcony of our apartment
In the morning light the next day after our arrival, we discover our apartment has a view.
Welcome to Thredbo. Where the weather is a balmy 6 degrees C. (You can tell right, there is way less snow than say, Lake Tahoe)
Your apartment sure has a very nice view!