Japan Part 1: Skiing in Niseko

After a 9.5 hour flight, four hour layover, two hour flight and two hour bus ride we arrived in Niseko. Living in Australia has definitely redefined our ideas of a "reasonable" flight since it's so far from everything.

As the bus wound through the hills from the airport to the mountain we were all excited to see the snow piled up on the side of the road getting deeper and deeper the further that we went.

The roads happened to be clear on the trip up for us, but that evening it started snowing and only stopped for brief intervals for the 8 days that we were there.

Every morning we'd wake up to 20-30 centimeters of fresh powder, as excited as kids on Christmas morning.

Luckily the condo that we were staying in was only about a five minute walk from the gondola so just after breakfast we'd trek out and start our day.

We started skiing on a Saturday so there were a few crowds at some of the lifts, but especially later in the week it was never more than a few minutes wait to get on the lift which was awesome.  Less time in line = more time on the slopes!

Throughout the days the snow would be dumping down, at times thick enough that you'd have a hard time seeing where you were going.

Our video of skiing is too awesome/big for blogger to handle.  CLICK HERE to view it on youtube.

Be sure to click on the little gear in the lower right hand corner of the youtube window and up the resolution.

After the first day we took a strategy of escaping into the trees and were thrilled to find powder well past your knees and very few people amongst the trees.

If you can't tell from the smiles on everyone's faces, the snow in there was AWESOME!

The last few mornings we managed to drag ourselves out of bed for first tracks and were lucky enough to be the first ones down through the trees after the fresh powder from the night before.

In the gondola, by myself

We did get a few glimpses of sunshine during the day most days - usually about an hour or so.  If we were lucky the sun would come out while we were in the trees giving us a chance to remember just how beautiful winter can be.

Living on the beaches all the time, we'd forgotten a bit just how amazing everything looks covered in snow.

One of the days we actually caught some fog in the trees briefly while the sun came out - it was like skiing through a dream.

In one of the rare patches of clear weather we decided to try our luck on the peak.  After a gondola up to a chair lift we were greeted with this horrifying chair lift that was literally a chair on a pole.  No bar, really no back rest, we gripped that pole and managed not to slip off.

Sooooo much snow

After grabbing a quick picture from the top, the boys decided to hike the 30 minutes straight up hill to the peak while I decided to head down from where we were.

With snow the theme of the week, it of course started dumping snow again before they made it to the peak which made the descent a bit challenging, but with 5+ meters (around 17 ft) of snow at the peak above the tree line, this was the most like the back bowls of Vail that we saw that week.

It was lucky that we ventured to the peak when we did because between the snow and the wind, the top chairs were closed for the rest of the week.

Nice lines in the trees

Webs in a moment of victory

Sunshine and powder

White trees

Us on the chairlift

Overall the skiing part of the trip was amazing.  Although the mountains were not as big as the ones in the western US, the snow was as good as we have seen.  Niseko is a world class ski destination and we had an awesome time!!!!

And just in case you missed the link above, click here for a video of us skiing.

Sayonara!!!

Today we leave for snowy Japan!!!

We will be heading to the ski resort of Niseko with 6 friends for 10 days of skiing and adventure.


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The resort has been getting DUMPED with snow this season so should we should get a few days of fresh powder to enjoy.  Currently they have a 4 meter base.  Amazing.  In fact, it is snowing there as I write this!!!

Here is the SNOW REPORT

After the resort we will be heading to Tokyo for 2 days to see the sights and absorb the culture.

Looking forward to the trip, will bring back lots of pictures!

Shellharbour Camping + Fishing Extravaganza

Summer's going by so fast that we're a bit behind on the posts, but a few weekends ago Chris and I headed out of town for a weekend of camping and fishing.

We once again headed south to Killalea state park, just past Wollongong down the coast.  You might remember from previous posts that one of the reasons that we really like this camp ground is that it allows campfires.  Unfortunately, due to the extremely hot and dry conditions it was a total fire ban so no marshmallows were consumed.

We did however manage to entertain ourselves with some almost completely deserted beaches.

The weather didn't play along quite as we'd hoped, but thankfully it was just overcast skies and some wind.

The campsite itself is about a 10 minute walk through the bush where you are quite unlikely to run into anyone else.

This makes for some very picturesque scenery as you make your way from bush to beach.

Even when the sun isn't shining, it's always nice to take a stroll on a deserted beach and enjoy the view.

Towards the evening the sky cleared a bit so we decided to check out the second beach that's just a short drive away.

Both of these beaches are typically known as great surfing beaches, but the swell was pretty small while we were there that weekend.

It did make for a nice place to watch the sun set by ourselves.

On Sunday we woke up bright and early to do some fishing with Shellharbour fishing charters.  We completely lucked out and had only four people on a boat that normally takes 7.  We spent the first few hours going for kingies and Chris pulled in one while the other guys brought in a few bonito.

After that we headed out to deeper water where we were drifting over a spot that was about 80 meters deep and we just killed it there.  With a two kg weight on the end, my arms were just exhausted from having to pull up a fish from that depth as soon as I put down my bait.  We ended up with a medley of different reef fish, which combined with the bonito was quite the feast.  On our way home we recruited a few friends for some dinner and sent them home with a few fillets to make sure that it didn't go to waste.

Houseboating on the Hawkesbury River

Last weekend we got together a group and rented a houseboat on the hawkesbury river.  Starting up in Brooklyn, we had the weekend to explore the upper parts of the river.

The weekend started off a scorcher with Friday hitting an all time Sydney high of 45 degrees C which is a whopping 113 degrees F.  Thankfully there was a fenced in pool right where we were meeting to get everyone on the houseboat and we spent quite a while just soaking in the water with just our faces sticking out.

Row Chris Row!  Fire burning in the background

After 3 of the 4 couples were on the boat, Chris and Gerrie went on a mission to set our newly acquired crab traps for the evening.  Unfortunately about 30 minutes after they disappeared into the horizon, James and Debs showed up and were quite dismayed that we had no way of getting them from the dock to the houseboat.  They cracked open a beer on the dock while shaking their fists at us, but all was forgiven when the dingy came into view being rowed by Chris.

Thankfully they were able to get a ride from a local bogan and then we were all hands on deck.  We spent the evening watching a massive forest fire burn in the distance where we could see the flames over the mountain tops and could watch the helicopters dropping water on the fire from above.

Captain Gerrie driving us out

The next morning we began our trek up the river in search of the perfect spot to moor for the evening.

Debs enjoying breakfast with the bridge behind

Many bacon sandwiches were devoured, along with plenty of cups of tea (you know you're travelling with two english girls when the kettle is always on).

We made our way up several parts of the river before finding a good spot to try some more fishing.  While Ashley showed them how it was all done, we all took the opportunity to relax and have a nap or a few beers.

What are you doing?!

While the boys tried their hardest to catch a dinner fish, seemed like mini jewfish were the catch of the day so they mostly just fed the local stock as it was growing.

shut up and fish

The dingy was taken out to try to place the traps again, with the extra fuel tank this time, and we all settled in to wait.

After some time at that spot went by without catching a winner, we decided to head further up the river to find somewhere to anchor for the evening.

The top deck of the boat was the perfect place to watch the river go by.  It's amazing that we're just an hour or so drive away from Sydney itself and you've got such unspoiled nature right there.  Much of the river is national park area and only a few houses dot the shoreline.

We ended up pretty far up the river in a very secluded spot with just a few other boats around, tied up at one of the moorings and called it a success.  During the evening the boys set the crab traps again, and then spent the night trying to catch whatever might be lurking around the boat.

The next morning dawned a bit cloudy again, but some bacon on the bbq on the back of the boat got everyone ready for the day ahead.

We broke the silence of the morning with the dingy off to check the crab traps, and much to our amazement there were three crabs in the trap!  One of them was a bit too small so we put it back in and then immediately started drooling looking a head to chili mud crabs for dinner.

Dnghy, powered by beer!

Pulling in the catch

Just not your day, buddy

Us wrestling the larger of the crabs

Chris got drabs, the good kind

You might remember us gushing about mud crabs in our NT adventures, but since then we've discovered that these delicious crabs are $50/kg which makes them a special occasion type of meal.  The large crab on the right was 1.3kgs itself, so these two crabs certainly paid for those crab traps!

Birthday camping at cave beach

For Chris's birthday weekend we once again headed down south to Jervis bay to go camping at Cave Beach.

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You may remember this from previous camping trips, but it's really one of our favorite camp grounds and we were happy to return.

One of the things that we really like about the spot is the abundance of kangaroos that are all around the campsite.

With all of the campers around these kangaroos have figured out that it pays off to get close to the humans.

Although we all did our anti-rain dance, unfortunately the weather didn't play along too well on Saturday and instead it was overcast and spitting rain off an on throughout the day.  Boredom was avoided with some walks on the beach coupled with a few beers by the campfire while we hid out under the shelter.

Just as dusk was coming, the sky started to clear up and the sun peeked out to give us an amazing double rainbow out over the beach.

We all quickly ran down to the beach to see it over the ocean.

Amazingly we could actually see both sides of both rainbows which isn't something that you get to see every day.

We stayed down on the beach as the sun started to set, turning the sky pink.

 As the sun went down we all got a bit silly.

After the sun dipped below the horizon we headed back to our campfire for some dinner, topped off with cakes made in oranges in the campfire for Chris's birthday.

Sunday dawned clear and sunny, and instead of taking pictures we all headed to the beach as quick as possible for some surfing and boogie boarding before heading home from a great weekend.