We waved goodbye to Nick’s parents and their boat in Sydney and began our homeward journey via Mt. Hotham in Victoria, as we were bringing their vehicle back to Tasmania.

Our big road trip began after a few stressful moments of getting out of Sydney with ‘Siri’ letting us down (or was that me trying to navigate the M5?) and were finally on the open road, heading for Canberra.

We sang, pointed out passing sheep and cows and made animal noises.  Pops and James did surprisingly well in the car and both had big sleeps along the way.  We stayed in Canberra for the night and left bright and early for the next 6 hours of driving to Mt. Hotham, where we were meeting Nick’s brother’s and their families.

Dropping into Bright for all the essentials for the weekend, we finally made it to the mountain on Friday afternoon.  Settling into our little lodge for the night and catching up with family, it was great to be finally out of the car.  We were up and ready to go the next morning with Poppy all decked out in her pink skis and boots (it’s all about the colour pink at the moment) and off she went to Ski School with her cousin, Maggie.  She was excited beyond belief.

Nick and I managed to ski/board together for the morning and I found my groove on the snowboard again, after not boarding since having Poppy.  With a blue bird day and good snow cover, it was hard to wipe the smile off our faces.

We spent time in the afternoon playing in the snow and the next day Poppy and James were in Ski School/care again, which enabled Nick and I to enjoy more runs together with Will, Tup and George.

We picked up Poppy from Ski School and enjoyed several runs with her.  I had a ‘proud-Mum’ moment when the three of us jumped on the chair-lift together for the very first time.  She managed to make it down ‘Easy Street‘ (a gentle green run) for most of the way on her own.  I am continually amazed how quickly children pick up new skills – she will be faster than us in no time!

I love being in the mountains and this weekend was no exception – it definitely is my happy place and I feel so at home having spent many years working in the ski-industry and boarding on many beautiful mountains around the world.  Seeing Poppy on the snow further consolidated its importance to me and I hope to spend more time skiing with our family in the future.

We bid farewell to Mt. Hotham the next morning as the snow continued to fall out of the sky.  Until next year beautiful mountain!  Xx