Happy New Year - 2011 Style

After a lovely weekend down on the south coast with Annie where the weather was somewhat cooler than Thredbo and where we watched the New Year’s Eve fireworks from the beach, I’m back in Thredbo enjoying the wild flowers that are popping up everywhere. And, the hot and sunny spell in Thredbo over the past few days will have activated many more flowers to open up in the next week or so.

It was my first NYE away from Thredbo in around 12 years and quite an enjoyable one with free music at Ford Oval beside the beach in Merimbula. The NYE fireworks were in two stages. The kiddies fireworks at 9:30 were shown to an audience of mostly young children, parents and grand parents while the midnight fireworks had an audience of average age around 16-17y.o. apart from Annie, myself, a large contingent of police and a handful of parents waiting for their children to depart the very large throng of adolescents. There was a light breeze, cool temps and a very slight surf all making for a great time on the beach. It was a wonderful night.

Looking down the Hump Run towards Tower 10

Lower World Cup

Downhill mountain bikers at BunnyWalk Station

A spectacular flower show only metres from the top of Kosi chair

Bushwalkers in a sea of wildflowers on the Dead Horse Gap trail

Yellow ones too

This is summer in the Aussie alpine
PS: very few flies

Summer fun on Summer Drift

Signature Hill from the bridge

Crowds beyond the bridge

I was informed that NYE was a hoot in Thredbo and the free entertainment in the village square with Adam Thompson was particularly good.

Strangely, whilst I write this report, with still hours to go before sunset, it has become very dark and much cooler but there’s nothing showing on the radar. Mountain weather - I love it.

There are quite a few holidaymakers still in the village even though the long weekenders have hit the road home.

Happy Birthday Norman.