Cheese All Round

Yesterday was Thredbo Cheese Day. It started in the morning with the annual Cheese Rolling event. Not quite what I expected but more a race to the bottom of a steep, grassy and very uneven hillside where the cheese round was more a participant rather than a target or prize. Heats were held for women and men and then finals. Helmets were compulsory and no serious injuries were incurred although at one stage the cheese round (frozen to keep it hard) managed to escape the bottom of the course.

Fun was had all-round (pun intended) and the lucky winners (with big cheesy grins) received a season pass for their efforts.

Then in the afternoon it was wine and cheese tasting at the poolside. A BIG crowd turned out under a warm sun, considerably bigger than the beer and cheese tasting held earlier in the year. There were five wine tasting outlets. My favourite were:- Jansz in the fizz department, in the whites it was the Tumbarumba Chardonnay - an excellent cold climate chardy and the Yalumba cab-sav for a good red. The King Island cheeses were, as before, delicious and inspired a constant long queue of tasters.

Following an afternoon of wine, cheese, music and sunshine there was the 'progressive dinner' so popular that it was booked out long before the night.

The cheese rolling course is set under a very pleasant Thredbo weather

The cheese has been hurled down 'Sundance' and the contestants take off ...

... before crashing to a sudden halt at the bottom of the course
Note the cheese recovery team on the left with what looks like a tarp

Some chased the cheese but the race was really against the clock
and sometimes that meant beating the cheese to the bottom

The women's final

The men's final saw more bodies being hurled to the ground

A note of interest for those believing King Island Cheese to be an Australian business. It is 100% owned by Lion (previous Lion Nathan) which is 100% owned by Kirin Holdings Company Limited (you know, the Japanese international beer conglomerate). Sometimes it's better to live in ignorant bliss ;-)