Happy New Year

Another year ticks over, and with it the first six months of my gap year come to an end. I spent New Year's Eve at the Thredbo Village Square, where people gathered to have a few drinks, party and listen to a live band. The band was quite good and played a lot of well known songs for people to sing along and dance. I stayed until about half past midnight, which is a great improvement from the previous year, where I spent the evening at home and fell asleep on the sofa together with my two dogs.

Party in the village square

When I woke up at 7 am this morning I felt a little bit guilty for drinking several cans of rum and coke, which doesn't fit all that well in my "get fit" regime, so I decided to do some uphill walking to work them off. I walked from home up to the top of the Cruiser Chairlift, which is the eastern most lift in the resort, and then kept going until I reached the high plateau behind the ridge from where you can see across to Mt Carruthers and Mt Twynam. There was no one else about and I enjoyed the peace and quiet among some lush fields of wildflowers. 

Lush fields of wildflowers

View east towards Lake Crackenback Resort with Mt Crackenback
in the background

I then followed the ridge towards the middle slopes and took some pictures of the Village from some more unusual angles, before walking down the Merrits Nature track. I have been breaking in some new walking boots over the last few days and have some deep blisters on the right foot. Today I decided to revert to my trusty old Red Backs to give the heel some time to heal; I will try the new boots again, once I have some skin back.

View of Thredbo Village

Blue shoes are giving me blisters

As you can see