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<\/a>We grabbed a beer at the Opera House and then jumped on a ferry to Manly.<\/p>\n Jeff took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to swim in the seasonably cold Pacific Ocean.\u00a0 We tossed the Frisbee a bit on the beach before Jeff decided to try Australia’s Mexican food.\u00a0 He thought it was acceptable, I agreed, but I hope he doesn’t now think it is easy to find good Mexican food in Australia.\u00a0 It is not.<\/p>\n We headed back to the city to explore the casino and a few more neighborhoods of city.\u00a0 I think Jeff got a pretty good 24 hour tour of Sydney.<\/p>\n The next day we got some breakfast and then headed back to the airport to collect our rental car for the 6 hour drive up to the Snowy Mountains.\u00a0 We stayed in a small town called Jindabyne which was just outside of the national park the ski area is located in.\u00a0\u00a0 Jeff counted 25+ kangaroos “sleeping” on the side of the road.<\/p>\n The next morning we were up early to head to Thredbo to get in some Australian spring skiing.\u00a0 They’ve had a good winter snowfall-wise and even had some late season storms to leave us plenty of snow with some fresh powder when we arrived.<\/p>\n The weather was all over the place that day – sunny, cloudy, snowy, rainy.\u00a0 The one constant was the wind.\u00a0 It was quite blowy.<\/p>\n We made it to the “Highest Lifted Point in Australia” – so we’ve got that going for us.<\/p>\n All in all it was a great day of skiing in Australia – I had very low expectations going in.\u00a0 We got a lot of runs in and the snow was much better than anticipated for so late in the season.<\/p>\n Another day, another long drive, this time to Melbourne.\u00a0 It was about 7 hours to get from Jindabyne to the hotel I chose in South Yarra.\u00a0 Upon arrival, we visited a few of my favorite haunts for dinner and drinks.<\/p>\n The next day was a busy one full of trying to visit friends.\u00a0 We started by meeting up with Dorota and Wojciech for some lunch at the South Melbourne market.\u00a0 Then we met Tiff, Andy and Sofia at another great spot that Andy found.\u00a0 After that it was off to show Jeff another one of my favorite Melbourne spots – the Stomping Ground brewpub.<\/p>\n Next we went to St Kilda so Jeff could see where we first lived when we moved to Australia and the scary clown we had to go by every time we went for a run. Before we headed out the next day, we toured a bit around Melbourne, taking in the street art and views by the river.<\/p>\n After our exploring we headed to the airport for our flight, enjoying lots of free food and drink at the lounge again!<\/p>\n Sara picked us up at the airport, then the next morning we took Jeff back for his flight back to the US.\u00a0 It was a great visit.\u00a0 Who will be visitor #5?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After returning from NZ to Brisbane, Jeff and I re-packed our stuff for a trip starting the next morning to see Sydney and Melbourne with a drive between to ski in Australia. Sara would be left behind in Brisbane to decompress from Handel overload and to start getting familiar with the area to figure out … Continue reading Blizzard of Oz<\/span> <\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>