Our Day Trip To Mount Buller
Goggles, check. Gloves, check, the warmest socks I could find, check. And just like that, we were off. I had never been skiing before but after putting it off for a few years, it was time I finally said yes to a day trip at Mount Buller.
Not knowing what to bring, we went down to Aussie Disposals where Simon, the store assistant, helped get us organised for our day trip. He managed to organise some hire equipment at a discount (what a bonus!) and found us some cute matching jackets to buy. Feeling prepared and a little professional with our new snow gear, we were ready.
On the day, we woke up at 4:30 in the morning (not wanting to waste a minute), put our snow gear on and began the drive up to Mount Buller. By the time we reached Mansfield, a coffee was the only thing on our minds, so we stopped off at a quaint café and fuelled up for the day.
In an eggs-and-bacon stupor, we finally reached the bottom of the mountain and the excitement started kicking in. After paying our ticket, we wound up the mountain, staring at the thick vegetation and the ever-growing height. The hustle and bustle of people plus the significant drop in temperature as we reached the top made the anticipation real.
We parked the car and hopped on a shuttle bus that drove us to the town square, where we picked up our boots, skis and poles that Simon helped organise. To get a feel for it and shake off the nerves, we started by skiing on the ‘Blue Bullet 1 and 2'.
After we began spending less time falling and more time skiing, we decided to challenge ourselves with some harder terrain. But first, lunch. We enjoyed some hot chips, guzzled down a powerade and sipped on hot chocolate at Koflers while laughing at all the awkward falls we managed to achieve in such a short time.
Once the sugar rush kicked in, we decided to take on the harder tracks. We tried out the ‘Standard Run’ and ‘Shakey Knees’, where I discovered that the beginner level was definitely for me. As the day neared its end, we felt pretty satisfied with our first skiing experience and couldn’t wait to come back again.