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 where we should live.

Using my Qantas points, I booked us business class tickets from Brisbane to Sydney and Melbourne to Brisbane. With the business class tickets you get access to the business class lounge before the flight. Anyone who knows me knows I love free stuff and airport lounges have so much free stuff!

We arrived into Sydney where I had booked the same hotel Sara and I previously stayed at since it is in a great location in Circular Quay and easy to get to with public transport.  Our room was ready early so we were able to drag our bags and Jeff’s skis in and set out to explore Sydney.

We grabbed a beer at the Opera House and then jumped on a ferry to Manly.

Jeff took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to swim in the seasonably cold Pacific Ocean.  We tossed the Frisbee a bit on the beach before Jeff decided to try Australia’s Mexican food.  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.  It is not.

We headed back to the city to explore the casino and a few more neighborhoods of city.  I think Jeff got a pretty good 24 hour tour of Sydney.

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.  We stayed in a small town called Jindabyne which was just outside of the national park the ski area is located in.   Jeff counted 25+ kangaroos “sleeping” on the side of the road.

The next morning we were up early to head to Thredbo to get in some Australian spring skiing.  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.

The weather was all over the place that day – sunny, cloudy, snowy, rainy.  The one constant was the wind.  It was quite blowy.

We made it to the “Highest Lifted Point in Australia” – so we’ve got that going for us.

All in all it was a great day of skiing in Australia – I had very low expectations going in.  We got a lot of runs in and the snow was much better than anticipated for so late in the season.

Another day, another long drive, this time to Melbourne.  It was about 7 hours to get from Jindabyne to the hotel I chose in South Yarra.  Upon arrival, we visited a few of my favorite haunts for dinner and drinks.

The next day was a busy one full of trying to visit friends.  We started by meeting up with Dorota and Wojciech for some lunch at the South Melbourne market.  Then we met Tiff, Andy and Sofia at another great spot that Andy found.  After that it was off to show Jeff another one of my favorite Melbourne spots – the Stomping Ground brewpub.

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.

After our exploring we headed to the airport for our flight, enjoying lots of free food and drink at the lounge again!

Sara picked us up at the airport, then the next morning we took Jeff back for his flight back to the US.  It was a great visit.  Who will be visitor #5?