Three weeks of snow

Our decision to spend nearly three weeks of our trip at the Big White Ski Resort was one that we second-guessed many times over prior to arriving.  Would there be enough terrain to keep Alick interested over that length of time?  What if Tess absolutely hated learning how to ski or snowboard?  After moving around so much over the last few months, would we find ourselves completely bored being in one place for so long? 

Luckily, our doubts didn’t result in us changing our plans as Big White was a great experience in all aspects. 

The Big White resort is set on a truly picturesque mountain, famous for the ‘snow ghosts’ (trees completely covered in snow).  Unbeknownst to us when we arrived the resort was originally owned by an Australian family and I think we heard more Australian accents than any others while we were on the mountain.  Being a seasonal resort, the majority of staff and visitors were doing one-off trips to Big White, though through Dawn and Keith, we also discovered a lovely local community who had grown up spending winters at Big White.  To our delight, a major contributor to the homely, community feel of Big White was how dog-friendly the resort was – with nearly every local we met being accompanied by a dog wearing a season pass!

Big White 'snow ghosts'

In terms of the skiing and boarding…well, suffice to say that it was amazing.

Tess’ confusion over whether to attempt to ski or snowboard was very quickly resolved, after witnessing some very painful snowboard falls in the first few days while in her beginner skiing lessons.  It became pretty clear that skiing it was!  While making good use of the skiing lessons on the mountain and enjoying many mornings skiing with Deb (thanks for your patience Deb!), Tess’ skiing progress was slow but steady, with only a few hiccups along the way  - including accidentally knocking over a little kid, getting somewhat stranded when the mountain experienced a complete white-out and one unfortunate case of getting wrapped around a tree.  Thankfully all injury-free for all parties involved! In between all of that though, the enjoyment of skiing certainly kicked in, particularly when Tess found herself finally being able to generate enough speed to not feel like she was holding Alick back...  For Tess, this newfound enjoyment of skiing was definitely an unexpected bonus given that the experience of learning how to ski was taken on as a personal challenge rather than an expectant  future hobby – and Alick is certainly very happy that Tess seems to be about as addicted to the mountains as he is now!

Tess skiing at Big White's 'Gem Lake' 

Alick also took a couple of lessons, which really helped to tweak his technique – as well as meet other people on the mountain (including having the opportunity to go riding for a morning on a powder day with his instructor from the day before – the best way to find all of the chutes through the trees!! Thanks Duncan!!).  We both really enjoyed being on the mountain, and particularly toward the end of our time when we were able to ski together a little more. Alick in particular was thrilled to wake on our final morning to a fresh dump of ~10cm across the resort, and clear skies to boot.  Having trialled some demo snowboards the day before, and had his stance professionally aligned, Alick was happy to be back on his board and able to cut a little loose for our final morning at Big White – including a run in the Cliff area, which he had been eyeing off for the previous three weeks, but had not ventured in as the conditions or snow hadn’t been ideal.

Alick at Big White's 'Black Forest'

We hired an apartment on the mountain for the duration of our stay and the luxury of having a place where we could completely unpack and cook for ourselves didn’t wear off…so much so that we very quickly developed an evening routine of coming in from the mountain, jumping in the hot tub, cooking dinner, usually being in bed by 8.30 – 9pm so that we could be awake for an early start on the mountain.  While it may sound very boring and unsociable, we can’t quite describe how blissful this ‘home life’ was!  Of course, as mentioned in our previous post, this was also aided and abetted by us developing a continued obsession with the TV series Homeland, which also kept us indoors on a number of nights!!  Now that we have finished Season 2, we’re not sure how we’re going to survive the wait until September for S3!!

We were however lured out of our cosy abode on a few evenings, joining Dawn and Keith or Deb and Nig in their cabins for dinner, spending an evening ‘tubing’ and going night-skiing (with Alick strapping some skis back on for the first time in 15 years).  

Our lovely skiing companions - Christine, Deb and Dawn

We were totally blown away by the hospitality and generosity of people at Big White; and in particular our friends Dawn and Keith who went above and beyond anything we ever imagined, and we are so so grateful to them for all of their support and hospitality. We also had a great dinner at the Gunbarrel Grill, complete with the famous ‘Gunbarrel Coffee’ (a coffee laced with cognac and Grand Marnier, set alight during the serving) constructed and served by the maestro Keith himself! 

Keith whipping up his 'Gunbarrel Coffees'

After a slightly eventful journey down from the mountain to Kelowna, we had a lovely night with Dawn and Keith before boarding a bus to Vancouver, to stay in the Victorian Hotel – where we had stayed six years before with Tess came to visit while Alick was living in Canada.  We had a great couple of nights in Vancouver, characterised by good food (the amazing sushi and a brilliant sandwich shop called Meat and Bread being a couple of notable highlights) and great catch-ups with friends from both near and far…

Once again, our experiences in Canada really tied in with the overall themes of our journey – to provide us with personal and physical challenges, to enable us to reconnect with friends and loved ones, and to provide opportunities to meet new people and have new experiences…  We write this post from a plane en route to Las Vegas, where we commence the final leg of our journey.  For the next month we will be driving around the southern states of the USA, hoping to journey from Las Vegas to New Orleans, and then back to California in order to catch our flight back to Australia at the end of March.  It is a bitter-sweet feeling to be embarking on this final component of our trip; we have had the most amazing and unforgettable experiences, met wonderful people and thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company.  As we embark on our road trip, however, we are also now enjoying being able to start thinking and planning in earnest for the next chapter of our lives in Australia, and are very much looking forward to seeing friends, family and loved ones when we return in just over a month’s time!

For now, however, Viva Las Vegas!!!

January

We seem to have fallen slightly behind with this blog – the result of a jam-packed month of January and the fact that we have become completely addicted to the TV series ‘Homeland’, which has taken over quiet moments that would have previously been dedicated to blog writing!  We will do our best to catch up now though - we apologise in advance for the length of this post!

January saw us very much on the road again – travelling to Scotland, returning to England, heading over to Ireland, spending a week in New York, flying to Seattle and bus-ing up to Kelowna, Canada. 

Throughout January we were so fortunate to continue to connect with many extended family members around the UK and Ireland. It was such a pleasure to have some individual time with family who we generally see during major family events, as well as having the opportunity to really get to know the newer additions to our family networks; the families of Neil and Denis (Tess’ sister’s partners) - the MacGregor’s in Edinburgh and Ryan’s in Cork.  

We remember with particular fondness the three days we spent with Granny Mary at both Troon and Dalry, Scotland in early January.  After two quite wet days, the rain finally gave way to the sun on the final morning we were there, allowing the three of us to walk along the Troon shoreline having brilliant conversations about life, hopes and dreams.  Sadly, some three weeks later when we were in New York, Granny Mary passed from this world and, although it’s very sad to lose such an extraordinary family member, there is definitely some sweetness in farewelling a woman who had lived life to the fullest and was ready to move on.  We count ourselves so lucky to have been able to share those early moments of 2013 with Granny Mary. 

Alick and Granny Mary in Troon

Scotland

In addition to seeing Granny Mary, we were also lucky enough to have three great days with Luke and Lina (Alick’s Uncle and Aunt), who live in beautiful Ayrshire.  We enjoyed long walks through the Blair Estate with their doggies, as well as great food, company and conversation.  We are so thankful to Luke and Lina for sharing their space with us and for enabling us to also have some really special time with Granny.

Beach walk in Portencross, Ayrshire

From Dalry we headed south, through Aviemore (where Alick had memories of family ski trips many years ago!) to Inverness, where we were lucky enough to stay with some old family friends of Jo’s husband Neil.  Miche and Quintin were amazingly hospitable (particularly given we had only met them once before, at Jo and Neil’s wedding!), and we had a lovely time, with much delicious food, wine and great company.  The next morning we went Nessie-spotting around Loch Ness (we didn’t see her, in case you were wondering) and had a beautiful walk through the Scottish countryside.

Loch Ness

Inverness was the ‘gateway to the Highlands’ for us, as we set off to drive over the highest road in Scotland, destination Kerrimuir, where we were to visit James and Annabel at Lednathie, a long-held family estate on Alick’s Mum’s side of the family.  It was a very beautiful drive, taking us through some simply stunning countryside.  The last couple of hours of the drive were in darkness, winding our way along tiny country lanes, arriving at Lednathie to a warm welcome and yet another delicious meal!  We had another lovely taste of Scottish countryside walking through the heather the next day, before setting off south once again, destination Edinburgh…

Lednathie

Our arrival into Edinburgh started with a delightful afternoon tea with Alick’s old family friend Cathie and her daughter Hester, which gave us a lovely opportunity to catch up on all of their news.  From there we drove on into Edinburgh and were warmly greeted by Lorna and Robin MacGregor, Tess’ brother-in-law Neil’s parents.  Lorna and Robin were amazing guests; as well as giving us free-run of their lovely home, they also helped us map out an itinerary for our time there, were a wealth of info on Edinburgh history, and made sure that we certainly didn’t go hungry!  While staying at Lorna and Robin’s, we celebrated Alick’s 31^st (!!!) birthday with a day-trip out to East Lothian, where his mum Scilla grew up, and Granny and Grandpa lived for many years.  It was really special to visit so many places that held strong memories for Alick – including a climb up North Berwick Law, a walk along the beach near Scilla’s childhood home, and a visit to Grandpa Jamie’s grave in Dirleton.  The day was finished with a delicious dinner in Edinburgh at a restaurant of Lorna and Robin’s recommendation – overall a lovely way to usher in Alick’s 32^nd year!  The memories of that day are also particularly poignant now, given Granny Mary’s passing last week; we will cherish the memories for years to come.

At the summit of North Berwick Law on the morning of Alick's 31st birthday!

Bass Rock from North Berwick Law

One of the many picturesque closes on Edinburgh's Royal Mile

After staying a day extra than planned with Lorna and Robin (such good hosts they were!) we once again headed south, farewelling Scotland and making for the small village of Great Tew, in the Cotswolds.  On passing through the area earlier on our trip we had found a lovely little pub there called the Falkland Arms, and thanks to Cathie’s wedding gift to us, decided to break the journey between Edinburgh and Norfolk (our next main destination) with a night there.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, complete with a delicious pub dinner and a completely unexpected bottle of French Champagne gifted to us by the pub!  We went to bed with tales of the ghosts who live in the building in our ears, but were comforted that one of the famous ghosts is an old dog who used to frequent the pub and now lies in front of the open fire of a night…  Needless to say, we slept well and were not bothered by any supernatural visitors!

Falkland Arms, Great Tew

From Great Tew we drove across country to Norfolk, the county of Alick’s birth.  We had booked a room in a house in Norwich through Air BnB, which turned out to be a great success, thanks to the hospitality of our host Lucinda.  Norwich surprised us both with its youthful vibrancy, interesting food scene and significant history – as well as a brand new craft beer bar which had over 20 different British beers on tap – Alick was in heaven! 

Lucinda’s place gave us a great jumping-off point to explore the North Norfolk coast, where Kif and Alick grew up before moving to Australia in 1990.  We started the day with an early morning visit to the Old Vicarage at Briningham, where the Weber’s lived in the early mid-late 80’s.  The house was much smaller than Alick remembered, but it was lovely to re-visit and great for Tess to hear all about how hard Scilla and Simon worked to renovate the old house.  The next stop we made was at Gunthorpe Hall, where Scilla, Simon and Kif were living when Alick was born.  Gunthorpe was an old country estate, which had been bought by a couple from London who created a community of people to work on and renovate the property, which was quite derelict at the time.  Simon project-managed the renovation of the property in the early 80s, during which time Alick was born!  We were thrilled when, on chatting with the gardener, we learned that Jeremy and Marie, the owners of the property when the Webers lived there, still owned and ran Gunthorpe, and in fact were there then!  We had a lovely cup of tea with them, and reminisced on the (patchy) memories that Alick had of his childhood there.  It was amazingly kind of Jeremy and Marie to open the whole house and gardens up for us to explore, as they prepared for a large party to arrive for the weekend.  The remainder of our day in East Anglia involved long walks on the beach, quiet pints in a local pub, and reminiscent drives through many parts of the countryside that hold memories for Alick…

Gunthorpe Hall, Norfolk

Our final stop in England was once again with Bec, Mark, Ava and Florence in Winchester, where we returned the trusty ‘Minty’ (Simon and Rosie’s VW Polo that we had had for the previous month) and once again had a lovely evening with Bec, Mark, Ava and Florence – amazing hosts they are!  As Bec drove us to the airport the next morning, the snow started to fall – little did we know that this would become a theme for the next three airport trips we were to make!

Bec, Florence and Alick

Ireland

As our trip to Ireland approached, we grew more and more excited about seeing Tess’ sister Fi again after so many months, and spending time with Fi and Den.  What a fun week it was!  Such a lovely combination of doing touristy things, partying, having some real ‘veg-out’ time and just relaxing – with our full itinerary for the week mapped out by Fi and Den (such a treat after many months of carefully planning our itinerary in each previous destination).  Thanks to Den’s admirable driving efforts (being the only one insured to drive) we practically circum-navigated Ireland heading from Dublin to Galway, being treated to a lovely evening in Glengarrif, heading to Cork for two nights with the broader Ryan family and back to Dublin.   Throughout our Irish travels we had ready samples of typical Irish fare, with Guinness, potatoes, black and white pudding being regular staples (yes, even Tess developed a love of pudding once she stopped thinking about what was in it!).  With Fi and Den’s recent decision to relocate back to Australia over coming months, our week in Ireland was a timely opportunity to get an understanding of the everyday details of their life together in Ireland – their cute little apartment, their favourite houses in the surrounding streets and of course their favourite local Thai restaurant – yum!   We are so grateful to Fi and Den for such an awesome week and also to Denis, Agnes, Katie, Joanne and Jack Ryan for being such accommodating hosts in Cork– such a pleasure to meet you all. 

Alick, Den and Fi in the pub where Den and Fi met in 2010! 

New York

The sadness of saying goodbye to Fi and Den in Dublin was certainly tempered by the fact they will be in Melbourne when we return to Australia, in addition to the fact that we had a week in New York ahead of us!  New York was an absolute whirlwind…an absolutely freezing whirlwind that took some getting used to (opening the door to -12 degree Celsius weather) but a whirlwind nonetheless!!!  We rented an apartment for the week in Williamsburg, Brooklyn through Air BnB (thanks for the tip Owen and Bec!) and it was such a dream location.  The atmosphere in Williamsburg was so much fun it was sometimes difficult to motivate ourselves to head across to Manhattan (though the very chilly walk over the Brooklyn bridge was a much-needed antidote for the previous month of eating and drinking in the UK and Ireland!). 

Our week in New York was a combination of eating, drinking, seeing Broadway shows, brewery visits and sight-seeing – we’ve outlined a couple of our favourite moments below:

• Food - While we had so many incredible food experiences in New York, particular highlights were ‘St Anselm’ in Williamsburg, ‘Beauty and Essex’ and ‘La Esquina’ on the Lower East Side – as well as many other delicious places on both sides of the Hudson... 
• Breweries – We did a tour of the Brooklyn brewery which gave us a great insight into the history of one of the USA’s most iconic craft breweries, while also giving us a chance to sample some of their beers!  It was a very good tour, and certainly got Alick’s creative juices flowing…
• Broadway (and other performances) - We saw three shows on Broadway; Newsies (possibly the most amazing musical performance we’ve seen), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (thanks to our friends the Bards – highly recommended and Scarlett Johansson was brilliant!), and Evita (surprisingly Ricky Martin just blew us away.  He was so good even though some of the other aspects of the show left a little to be desired).  We also spent a night at the Upstanding Citizen’s Brigade comedy club on the Lower East Side (very funny, if a little close to the bone at times, stand-up), and caught some live music at the New York City Winery, where we had a great night at the bar watching the Ryan Montbleau Band
• Sight-seeing – Even one full day didn’t feel like enough time in the Metropolitan Museum of Art - we made good use of the guided tours there, and would recommend others do the same if you only have one day!  We also really enjoyed visiting the Highline park (such a brilliant use of public space) and it was very interesting seeing the September 11 memorial site which had changed significantly since we were each last in New York.  Of course, a walk in snowy Central Park was fantastic, and generally just walking around in New York you feel like you are constantly on a sight-seeing adventure!  We topped off the week with a College Basketball game at Madison Square Gardens (complete with oversized hot-dogs and beer!).

Central Park, New York

While in New York we were also fortunate enough to spend a delightful evening with our friend Zak’s dad Roland and his partner Nelly.  It was such a pleasure getting to know them both a little better after so many years of hearing so much about them (though Zak and Dani, you were both very much missed that evening!).

On Sunday, our final full day in New York, we awoke to the news of Granny Mary’s passing, and there seemed nothing more appropriate than to head to a gospel church service in Harlem in her honour.  The music was so beautiful and, for us, such a fitting tribute to an incredible woman. 

Seattle to Big White

From New York we flew across to Seattle – a pleasant transit stop over in a city we had so much fun in during our travels in 2007.  Rowan Miller, a friend of Alick’s from Tasmanian pony club days, now lives in Seattle with his wife Athelie and their gorgeous bub Asher, so our evening in Seattle proved to be a fantastic opportunity for dinner with the lovely Miller family.

Dinner with Rowan, Athelie and Asher

Our planned bus trip to Canada the next day was somewhat hindered by the fact that Greyhound had cancelled the service they had sold us tickets for the week before (?!) and, once the Greyhound staff managed to negotiate our passage with their sister bus company instead, the bus was held up at the USA/Canada border crossing as part of the filming of a ‘Border Security’ episode with the customs staff being particularly vigilant ‘on camera’ and the bus waiting for an hour for a clearance outcome of a fellow bus passenger (who was eventually denied entry). 

We finally arrived in Kelowna, British Columbia some 2 hours later than expected and were greeted by Dawn and Keith Taplay (family friends of our friend Andy).  Dawn and Keith have been just amazing to us and so incredibly hospitable, having us stay in their beautiful home; cooking us a delicious dinner (and waiting to eat with us given our delayed arrival time); giving us a ride up to the Big White Ski Resort the following day (where Keith works); facilitating a supermarket shop en route in the considerably cheaper supermarkets in Kelowna; and having us over for dinner at their cabin at Big White last Saturday night where we met their friends Deb, Nigel, Christine and Gary.

In our first few days on Big White, Alick has well and truly managed to find his snowboarding feet once again and, after a few lessons, Tess is making progress on the beginner slopes but finding a surprising level of enjoyment in skiing.  With the lapse of Tess’ initial ski rental period, our debate of whether it will be more economical to continue renting or purchase skis for the remainder of our three weeks at Big White has been negated by the extreme generosity of Deb and Nigel who have leant us skis, poles and boots (which miraculously fit Tess perfectly!) for the duration of our time here.  We continue to be amazed and touched by the kindness of friends we have just met. 

Our apartment at Big White is in a dream location – right on the slopes, so convenient to all amenities and a wonderful space to be able to completely unpack and settle in for our adventures on the slopes over the weeks to come.

Our first night on Big White was much cause for celebration when we learned of the birth of our beautiful little niece Lucy Maree MacGregor.  We are so excited and happy for Jo and Neil and can't wait to cuddle Lucy the minute we get home to Melbourne in early April.

Our niece Lucy

Lucy's arrival is a beautiful reminder to us of life's bookends and, as we publish this post, we are sending much love and thoughts to Scilla, Angus, Lina and others who are making the final preparations to lay Granny Mary to rest in Dirleton tomorrow.  We will never forget the many happy times we have had with Granny, and feel so thankful for the friendship, love and wisdom that she shared with us through her life.

Tess and Alick xx