Winter 2007 marked the first anniversary of our family trip to Mount Selwyn. Last year the Fumeauxs, Donalds and Rosenbaums went to Talbingo for Chris and Roman’s first snow experience. This year as the anniversary approached we decided to take a different angle and approach Mount Selwyn from Adaminaby. Claire and Jim were kind enough to let us rent their homestead Windradeen for a quite farm retreat 30 minutes drive from Adaminaby. We needed to up the ante a little bit and therefore four intrepid families joined together to fill two houses with lots of laughter and even more kids. There was Jane and Michael with Lui and Lotie, Gary and Ute with Lauren, Luke and Max, Roman and Louise with Roman (junior) and Chris as well as Will and Eszty with Liam and the youngest participant of them all one month old Marta.

            All parties decided to leave Sydney some time Wednesday the 25th August 2007 and arrive independently at Windradeen. By 19:00PM that night all parties had arrived with the Fumeauxs, Michael and Jane staying in the Homestead and the Donalds and Rosenbaums settling into the Guesthouse next door. The large dining room/kitchen served as a convenient place to gather the troops for breakfast and dinner and we usually spent most of the time together in the homestead, leaving the guesthouse for Eszty and Marta to relax.

            Thursday morning dawned with Liam, Roman and Chris waking early and talking about the first day skiing in front of the cosy fireplace. It was time to go across to the homestead to wake the rest of the lazy lot. The ground was covered in frost. Once we finished our tumultuous breakfast with eight children, eight sleepy adults and 10 different kinds of breakfast cereal it was time to get the gear organised for the first day of skiing. After loading half a ton of pre-hired gear of all sizes into the cars we set of early to arrive at the snow field for the 9:00 AM opening of the Mount Selwyn ski school. This year Luke, Lauren, Chris, Roman, and Liam went to Ski school in the morning from 9:00 to 12:00 while the older Max, Lui and Loti joined various ski classes from 10:00 till 11:30. Jane and Louise also took lessons while the dads enjoyed some time off in the morning before picking up the kids from ski school just before lunch. We all met up again for a hearty lunch with chips and gravy and home made sandwiches. By one O’clock it was time to hit the slopes again and this time the mums and dads were busy trying to keep up with the kids. We usually skied till around about 16:00 PM and then drove back to our homestead for dinner and some sourly needed relaxation.

            For dinner time each family took care of one dinner for all. That way each of us only had to cook once and we all got our turn into presenting an exotic culinary delight. I could probably write ten pages here but the topic is probably too dangerous so suffice it to say that we all gorged ourselves with some really nice food. Highlight as always included the marshmallow roasting in the open fireplace for the kids. Then there was the vodka with raspberry juice and lots of amazing desert. But this trip was not just about eating and day two came on very quickly.

            The battle plan for day two, Friday, differed only slightly but it was the weather that decided to put on a special show for us. We went through all imaginable snow scenarios in a single day. It started with early fog, followed by nasty rain which gradually changed into sleet, followed by some good old snow which eventually you guessed it changed into hail. Most of us were somewhere on the ski fields when the ice pallets started to hit us. My boys looked at me in surprise and asked what’s that dad and looked up into the sky. Bad idea and we headed straight back to the comfort of the Mt. Selwyn restaurant. Then the lifts closed down and we had some lunch for a change. And finally to make the picture complete a little bit of sunshine to crown the day. Exhausted we took leave for another day and a nice hot shower in our retreat.

            Saturday came all too quickly and with it arrived the crowds at Mount Selwyn. We planned to book only weekdays for our next annual trip and a possible combination of Monday – Tuesday skiing followed by a day of rest and two more days of skiing si probably an ideal scenario. Saturday when the crowds arrive we could drive home.

            On Sunday, our fourth day straight on skies, most of us felt very tired. The kids didn’t seem to notice it at all and after three days of ski school their improvement was remarkable. Liam and Max started to work on the jumps and by the end of the week everybody could use the T-bars. There were some tense moments on some of the pommers with the occasional snow bath most everybody did really well. Special accolades go again to Eszty and Will who managed to squeeze in a few ski lessons with Gary the instructor. Baby Marta tucked safely below his jacket, Will paced up and down the Mount Selwyn dinning area and clocked several kilometres waiting for Eszty to return. We all vowed to come back again next year or even sooner if possible and a hot and sunny Monday morning sent us off back home.