Doing The Rounds

Howdy All,
This is my first blog post, not just here but ever so bear with me. As Jess touched on in her post we have just returned from a winter at Ski Rider Hotel down in the Snowy Mountains, and as such we had a lot of catching up to do with not only our friends but the family as well. It was a lot more draining than we originally thought it would be!

It has been a non-stop week for us running around trying to spend as much time as possible with everybody and so far I think we have succeeded! Every day has been spent amongst friends, the weekend alone was a juggling act. Saturday lunch was at my sister's for joint birthday celebrations followed by dinner and ten-pin bowling with the 'group'.







Sunday followed a very similar pattern, it was my Niece's 1st birthday so it was yet again another day spent with the entire family but the weather was perfect all weekend and it was quite refreshing to spend some time in the sun. We bailed early, after all it was NRL Grand Final day. None of our teams made it that far but it was a good reason to make nachos, drink some beers and just hang with friends!




It was with great relief we received our confirmation for our accommodation at Lake Louise, once again a big thanks to Jake Gibbs from the Working Holiday Club for helping fix that up!

The countdown is on, 7 days until we leave! Jess is preparing our detailed itinerary right now and things could not be more exciting! I promise my posts will get better, it surely couldn't can't get any worse. So until next time!

Thats all from Colin and Jess.

The Warm Up

So how did we get here? What has the last 4 months held for us? What did we do to save money and pass the time smiling while waiting for our big adventure to begin?

Ghostbusters - What you want to be when you grow up!

When we had Colin's cut off date from Qantas, that's when we started applying for work in the Snowy Mountains. We figured that working a winter season in Aus would be our "Warm Up" for Canada. And so we applied for many many jobs! We both had many interviews, my first choice was Thredbo and Colin's was being a lifty for Perisher. All the resorts were having their interviews on the same week, We had Ski Rider on the Thursday, Perisher on the Saturday and Thredbo on the Monday. It turns out we only needed the one interview.

Circus - Staff of Ski Rider

We met Roxanne and Jodie in the interview. We were really lucky for the opportunity! They had a massive number of returning staff, 300 applicants and only 15 positions available! Afterwards I was feeling pretty confident for us. We were told that we should hear something in 2 weeks, BUT we had a call the next day offering us positions, accommodation and meals - the absolute best deal on the mountain!

Vegas!! - Caesar and a Show Girl

From that moment - we didn't even attempt the other positions. We knew that Ski Rider offered us the most and would benefit us the most in the long run. And it was the greatest decision we could of made!

Paintball!! - Ski Rider Staff

Our experience at Ski Rider was all we hoped for! We made a tone of friends, saved a lot of money and snowboarded. I am a beginner snowboarded but have built a real confidence about it now. We also had a lot of random fun a long the way! There were dress up parties - circus and what I want to be when I grow up, paint ball, tandem bicycle riding, horse riding, vegas party, picnics, bushwalking and a possum that likes to break into our room!

Tandem Bicycle Riding!

We had the time of our lives and last Saturday we were really sad to have to say goodbye.

Horse Riding!!

We recommend everybody to try a working holiday in Australia first! It is a great warm up for what is coming and if you're in a couple, you can see how you go living and working together. Even I had some concerns at first but now all those worries are gone and I am super excited to start our adventure over seas together!! I heard that some jobs like ones in Perisher don't really give a lot of opportunity to save, make sure you go for the best deal for you and to ALWAYS budget!

Finally, have fun with it!
Jess