ausi ski bum

Spook Drovers Dream was an area the real Drovers tied up their horses or grazed cattle prior to their being a resort. Really nice area to ski if your learning. the best skier here such temperature changes are not unusual in June and then again in September. In reality we are lucky we get snow at all if only covers 0.01% of the Australian land mass.

I had to show my passport to buy my reail pass and activate it in Japan, the JR Rail Pass is an excellent deal and a great way to travel as a tourist. Your trains are amazing.

With the exchange rate now giving us 105 yen to every 1 Australian dollar I thought it was time to buy some Yen for my December Jan trip. In 2004 I got just 79 Yen, Jan 07 I got 89 Yen so this was to good to pass up as I suspect the Yen will regain strength soon.

A few Falls Creek photo's from this weekends ski trip Rocky Valley Dam from Ruined Castle Out The Window of my Apartment Drovers Dream Ruined Castle The New Dickie Knees Restraunt

Originally Posted By: Mantas Get much snow down there ASB? We are just over the 50cm mark at the moment (bearing in mind our average base is just 150cm on a good year) and about 50% of the runs at Falls Creek are open this weekend, not bad for the third weekend of the season.

I love tree skiing here in Australia the gaps between the trees are much tighter so you really have to concentrate, its one of the reasons I like many wear a helmet. In Niseko the extra space between the trees makes skiing there at a higher speed through the trees in the powder incredible fun. My family would love to go to Furano but while they keep everyone on the runs and out of the tree's its a no go zone. A huge number of the Aussies at Niseko would agree with this. The bottom line is skiing on the runs is fun but it offers little challenge, plotting and finding your way

Perisher is the largest resort and I like it a lot, Falls Creek is the largest in Victoria but as far as which is the best each has its pro's and cons. Personally I like Falls Creek because it has a proper village and the best ski in and ski out in Australia, its runs are shorter than Perishers and there is more advanced skiing at Perisher. Falls Creek is eacellent for Beginers and Intermediates and Advanced skiers will find plenty to do but some of the other resorts have more to offer the advanced skier, Falls Creek does have an area yet to be developed called Mt McKay and once that

I did 14 days at Niseko last season followed by a 10 day tour and next seasn I will be staying for 20 days. Locally (Aust) I go to the mountain most weekends in season and one 7 to 9 day stay but I own the apartment so its pretty easy. I tend to use it weekends and rent it weekdays. Will be back this weekend

You may like these one's as well joshnii The photo you are talking about and the one below come from an area at Falls Creek called the Maze, it was burnt out in a bush fire in January of 2003 and these photo's had chared trees and snow, a very unique look

Originally Posted By: Bushpig love that first pic! Does the resort go right down to the lakes edge? Not quite, the lake is actually a dam which is part of the Hydro Electric scheme so there is plenty of water for snowmaking.

These are a few from previous years at Falls Creek, I will try and get some new ones the weekend coming. The arial photo's are from John at Helicopter Services Australia

Its snowing again tonight

This week was the third dessert challenge with Pears and Chocolate. The Challenger did really bad and Sakai won convincingly. Its funny how all the Aussies on here follow this japanese show and hardly any Japanese know it. It has a huge following here.

Was skiing today at Falls Creek, three runs open with a very firm cover, was fun but I must admit was looking forward to more runs, I bought some new boots so I was giving them a testing

I work with people with a disability and used to volunteer to take groups of disabled on holidays. I was asked if I would take a group to the NSW snowfields and thought it would be fun. We went to a place called Mt Selwyn and it was very poor snow with only one or two runs open so we went to Perisher for a few days which was better. I loved it and when I returned to Perth where I lived and worked I told the employees with a disability in Business Service (Employment centre for people with a disability)that they would love skiing, the following year I took a group from my work to Falls

Snowgums are a type of gum tree that only grows in the colder alpine regions, I have tried several times to grow them at home with no success so this must be true. They become very twisted with the weather an they have very colourful bark. Unfortunatly unlike most Australian gum trees they can not handle fire well and the bush fires this year and in 2003 have damaged many of these trees. They do grow again but from the base and to full size takes 30 to 50 years.

Originally Posted By: thursday that is a shame. Sashimi is so nice. Have you tried shabu shabu? Like Bill Murray said in Lost in Transaltion: "what kinda restaurant makes you cook your own food". Yes lots of fun

Originally Posted By: Bushpig un-australian? Mate I love the stuff! We eat raw oysters in Aus, so what's the diff! You might I hate Oysters

Originally Posted By: Bushpig I'd love to, but I'm a bit far away down here... Me too

I went to Niseko for my last summer holiday and am again next summer. That of course is Aussie summer your winter.

They sell custard filled fish shapped cakes at MaxValu

I get quite disturbed watching Iron Chef when they have live fish or lobster etc and they carve it up alive, I would rather they killed it first. Personally I like my food cooked so alive would never work for me. On Miyajima Island in January we stayed at the Grand hotel and we had our first full Japanese banquet. We were brought this amazing basket of sashimi and we tried a few things but raw fish is just un-Australian so they brought us these heated rocks in baskets and we cooked the fish on them. OK most of you would think that was just wrong but we really enjoyed the experiance

I live 400km south of there and we never got a drop of rain, thats Aussie Weather for you.

You get some great shows. Still love Iron Chef Lettuce challenge tonight

I think its a great feature, if it can work within the rules than pleae keep it, the shout box may well need additional mods not sure if thats posible but just a thought.