Wollongong to Thredbo - 6th July 2009

G'day

Well we have had a week of travelling and, as I've implied before, in Australia that usually implies many kilometres of driving.

It started with a drive to Wollongong on Thursday for the NSW Under 13 Hockey Championships. Four divisions of 8 teams each divided into 2 pools. Manning Valley are in the 2nd division. They came up against some tough opposition in Far North Coast ( 0-6 ) and Southern Highlands ( 1-3 ) but fortunately, New England with whom they drew ( 1 all ) were beaten more comprehensively. This resulted in our boys playing for 5th and 6th in their division ( they lost to Dubbo ) but at least they were not in a relegation battle. Under 13 sport is quite awkward as far as I'm concerned. You get boys in varying stages of pupertal development which results in some teams having one or two fully developed young men in their team. These are the boys and the teams who generally do well and I suppose that's just the way it goes. Imagine having some kind of system where instead of age groups they were divided according to testicular volume or other signs of pubertal development.

We had heard about Australia's ski fields from some of our friends and after a lot of deliberation and frequent checks of our bank account , we decided to give it a go since we were half way there and Matt and Jen were on holiday. We chose Thredbo and we are impressed! The facilities are excellent and the service is " above and beyond ". Today was our first ski - Matt and Jen are hooked and easily negotiate Friday Flat's, Bron is skiing beautifully and my late dad obviously taught me well when I was a teenager. Despite not skiing for 20 years, I coped well and didn't ski too badly either. We look forward to another 2 days of skiing and the experience. Temperatures are just below zero, the last snow was a fall of about 70 cm, 3 days ago and the snow making machines are doing the rest. This week's picture could have been of mountains, sunsets over mountains, ski runs on mountains or a few other varied things but instead you've got my skis as our instructor took us up The Cruiser for our run down The Playground and Walkabout.

By the time you hear from me again it will all be over but the memories of a genuine family holiday will be cherished always.

With love

Dylan, Bronwyn, Matthew and Jennifer