Back in 2023, I got to use a bit of long service leave I had built up after working 30 years in the Electrical Industry. I have always liked skiing since I worked 3 snow seasons in a row when I was young, so we bought the Epic Ski Season Pass which not only gave us unlimited time at Perisher, my favorite Australia ski resort but a week's lift pass in a sister resort in Japan. All up it was pretty expensive but felt like good bang for my buck. Caroline has family down Perisher way so, since we would be in the area anyway, we thought we'd make the most of it.
Our New Year's break had us visiting Armidale where we picked up a new parkrun (see photos above) as well as a hike, of sorts, to Wollomombi Falls. It was the first time I had seen the world's longest dog fence. (See photos below.)
Dalby was another new parkrun and a new town visited for us. 3 hours west of Brisbane is a long way for a parkrun but it was well worth the drive, Caroline ran barefoot and I was in the Nike super shoes. Lol.
Blackbutt was another new parkrun weekend but not quite as far as Dalby.
St Peters in Sydney Park was the first parkrun in New South Wales and so it draws a large crowd. It had a great view of town from the top of the hill. I lost a few seconds during my parkrun by stopping for a couple of photos.
Ginninderra parkrun was in Canberra where we visited family before heading to the snow. You can tell it was winter by the number of layers we were wearing!
It is always a bit of a gamble with snow conditions in Australia especially on the first week of the season. Our Day 1 had no lifts open as there was not enough snow for them to operate safely. So we had to hike up the hill in order to ski down. We only did it a couple of times before getting exhausted. Luckily it snowed overnight then and we were right for the rest of the week.
After the first ski trip we drove home via Coffs Harbour for a parkrun and a few walks.
We were only home in Queensland a couple of months before we headed back to the snow in New South Wales again. It sounds a bit weird now doing all that driving for such a short time but I had to fit it in around work and since we had the Epic Pass we thought we'd just squeeze it in. This time we had much better accommodation overlooking Lake Jindabyne. It was one of the worst snowfall years ever but it was ok for us as it gave us the chance to get our ski legs back and building some confidence for a bigger trip to Japan in early 2024.
On the way home this time it was Wildflower in northern Sydney for a parkrun and then our final night at Woolgoolga Beach on the Mid North Coast (of New South Wales).
Whoever thought of paid long service leave is a legend.
It was something that just built up over the years. I used mine to do a once-in-a-lifetime South East Asian loop holiday. As usual, we squeezed way too much into a couple of weeks. Changi Airport in Singapore was amazing as well as the rest of the city.
Of course, we picked up another parkrun there too.
From Singapore we flew to Chiang Mia (Thailand) for a midweek break and caught up with more family.
Then we jetted into Malaysia.
Surprise, surprise they even had a parkrun there as well.
South East Asia has some good low cost airlines so it meant we could have a few nights in Bali on the way home.
Once back home there was still enough energy for a new parkrun that had popped up at Harmony Boulevard on the Sunshine Coast.
Toowoomba got its 4th parkrun in 2023 at Picnic Point Parklands, so we went there too. It was a hard course but had a great view.
I will finish off with a few other random shots I took through out the year in the South East Queensland region.
