The Mt. Hotham Ski Resort is located about 350 kilometers northeast of Melbourne and provides the best ski conditions in all of Victoria. Mt. Hotham is 1,861 meters high and the ski resort is known as “Australia’s Powder Capitol” due to its high levels of annual snow fall. When you drive up to Mt. Hotham the level of snow fall is quite evident but the ski resort isn’t. The first thing you see is this small ski run:
When I saw this I was left thinking, “This is it?” However, once I drove to the other side of the mountain the full ski resort opened up:
Mt. Hotham for Australia is actually quite a big resort though not quite as big as Mt. Buller which is located further south and closer to Melbourne thus making it more popular. Mt. Hotham does get its fair share of skiers though and was quite busy:
You had to wait a little while to get on the ski lifts but all in all it really wasn’t that bad:
Mt. Hotham has 14 ski lifts spread out across the mountain which were all operating when I was there. These pictures kind of give you an idea of what the ski runs are like:
Obviously Mt. Hotham is not the Rockies or the Alps, but is good enough to have some fun on for people here in Australia. If you are into cross country skiing than Mt. Hotham is the place to go because cross country ski trails here are quite outstanding. Here is a view of the ridge line known as the razorback leading to Mt. Feathertop that is really popular with cross country skiers:
The scenery is just spectacular. If you look closely you can see the skiers on the ridge line:
Mt. Hotham has 35 kilometers of cross country ski trails to check out. I have never tried cross country skiing but it does look like fun and maybe sometime I will try it out:
If skiing isn’t your thing there is also areas where you can go sledding as well:
All in all Mt. Hotham is a pretty good ski resort and I encourage everyone to at least try going to one of the Australian ski resorts at least once during their time Down Under.
For those of you in Australia that missed this Tuesday’s full lunar eclipse below are my series of pictures that chronicle the full lunar eclipse. This eclipse was actually a pretty big deal here in my north Melbourne neighborhood because a number of my neighbors were sitting in their porches and yards watching the eclipse. The kids were especially having a blast with this lunar eclipse.
The eclipse began around 6:50PM here in Victoria:
About an hour into the eclipse some clouds rolled in obscuring the view which caused a lot of my neighbors especially their kids to start groaning:
Fortunately the clouds went away and the neighborhood had a good view of the eclipse again:
It took nearly 2 hours for the entire moon to be eclipsed:
The moon went nearly completely dark during the full eclipse:
After about 30 minutes some light began to appear from the moon again:
Eventually the moon began to appear
This is what the moon looked like around 10:19PM:
Here is moon around 10:30PM:
Just after 10:30PM the eclipse was pretty much over:
The full lunar eclipse made for a fun and interesting night and my wife and I were glad to be able to experience it with the rest of the neighborhood.
During a recent weekend I decided to make a drive up to the northern Victorian Alps to go snowboarding at the ski resort on Mt. Hotham. I have never been to this area of the Alps before as well as never going snowboarding in Australia either. Needless to say I was quite excited to go and check it out.
To reach the northern Victorian Alps I drove north up the Hume Highway from Melbourne before exiting at Wangaratta on the Great Alpine Road. The Great Alpine Road is one of Australia’s legendary drives through the Victorian high country and ending at the Pacific coastline of Victoria. Mt. Hotham lies at about the half way point of the drive in the very center of the Alps. However, there are a number of mountains that are passed along the way before reaching Mt. Hotham such as Mt. Buffalo:
You can actually see Mt. Buffalo all the way from the Hume Highway but good views of the mountain can be seen once you reach the city of Myrtleford along the Great Alpine Road. Unfortunately this day the mountain’s top was covered in clouds, but it was still a beautiful looking mountain that I will definitely check out on a future trip. After Mt. Buffalo, the Great Alpine Road continues through a beautiful valley following the Ovens River and eventually passing through the charming city of Bright. On each side of the valley is thickly forested mountains and occasional grazing land:
Just outside the city of Harrietville which is just east of Bright you begin to have great views of the snow capped Mt. Feathertop:
Mt. Feathertop is Victoria’s second highest mountain at 1,922 meters (6,306 feet) and was given its name because of the snow that remains on the mountain during the spring time looks like feathers sprinkled on the mountain. Right now the mountain is thickly coated in snow from all the precipitation the Alps have received this year:
Here is a picture of Mt. Feathertop shortly before the Great Alpine Road begins it’s ascent up the Victorian Alps:
Before traveling up the road you have to have vehicle chains. There are number of shops along the road that rent out chains that I had to rent for $30 a day. It was a bit annoying because I had a four wheel drive vehicle and the forecast said it wasn’t going to snow, but if you drive up the mountain without chains it is a $250 fine so it is best to go and rent your chains.
Anyway, as I proceeded up the mountain evidence of past bush fires was quite obvious:
The forest here in the northern Alps was not as scorched as badly as around Mt. Buller this year, but plenty of trees here were effected by the bush fires. Here is a picture of Mt. Feathertop through some of the these trees:
Mount Feathertop is definitely the most beautiful mountain I have seen in Australia so far basically just because it looks like a real mountain. Most of the mountains here are just large, round hills like Mount Hotham:
The Mt. Hotham ski resort is located on the very top of the mountain and if you look closely you can see the Great Alpine Road that skirts the side of the mountain in the above picture. Now compare Mt. Hotham with this view of Mt. Feathertop:
This spring I am definitely going to climb Mt. Feathertop when some of the snow melts. It is to dangerous to climb now because of the snow and ice along with the unpredictable weather in the high country during the winter. Hikers and cross country skiers have been killed in these mountains after getting lost in sudden blizzards that have hit the mountains.
I was ready for any potential blizzards as I was driving my Jeep up this mountain:
As I drove up the mountain and reached a high ridge line above the tree line, great views of the surrounding high country began to open up including views of Mt. Buffalo:
The clouds around had broken a bit from the summit of Mt. Buffalo thus I had a decent view of the mountain to the southwest. The view to south was of the typical high rolling hills of the Victorian Alps skirted by the Great Alpine Road:
Looking to the west I could see the valley I had just driven through to reach this point:
To my north was the summit of Mt. Hotham. If you look closely you can actually see the ski lifts on the top of the mountain:
Here is a close up of the snow gum trees on the summit of Mt. Hotham:
Here is a picture of the ridge line running from Mt. Hotham to Mt. Feathertop that is known as the razorback:
Further up Mt. Hotham I had an even better view of the razorback running towards Mt. Feathertop:
Hiking the razorback to Mt. Feathertop is actually one of the most popular hikes in all of Victoria thus when I climb Mt. Feathertop this spring this is probably the route I will go. Overall though, the views up here are spectacular and it is almost hard to believe you are still in Australia. This was just the beginning to a great weekend.
AUSTRALIANS could be developing a mass anxiety disorder as community fear rises, and it is the Muslim community that feels it most, new research shows.
Macquarie University psychologist Dr Doris McIlwain said that with constant reports of terrorist attacks, natural disasters and climate change, it was little wonder that people were more fearful.
The constant reminders people were given to be suspicious could be turning Australia into a society with a sort of "mass anxiety disorder", she said.
This is what "might" be causing the anxiety:
The survey also indicated that the media might play a role in perpetuating this fear with 67.2 per cent of the Muslim community feeling they where negatively portrayed by the media, compared with only 19 per cent in the broader community.
You don’t say? Life in Australia is very good, but you wouldn’t know it by reading the newspapers or watching the news where it is mostly doom and gloom. Where I work the office has a subscription to the Age newspaper and talk about a depressing newspaper. Just about every day there is an article about how we are all going to die from global warming, the whales are all going to die, John Howard is going to kill everyone with his nuclear power plant idea, Australia is a rogue state because it sells uranium, Bracks’ water desalinization plant is going to kill all the fish in Port Phillip Bay, and the list goes on and on.
I think it just goes to show how good life must be if the thing you have to worry about most in your life is some boogeyman that is never going to effect you anyway. I believe it was Franklin Roosevelt that said, "that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself", is often times very true.
It may be odd to American to understand why Australian believe kangaroos are a pest. Many Americans think of kangaroos as being cute and exotic animals while Australians consider them pests since they often end up hitting the grill of their cars on the highways here. The amount of road kill on Australian highways is staggering. For example when I drove from Ayers Rock to Alice Springs I counted 37 dead kangaroos in five hours of driving. This is something I do when driving long distances in Australia, I count road kill to pass the time; that is how prolific road kill is in Australia.
I have also had my fair share of close calls hitting kangaroos as well. The kangaroos are really dumb and will follow a kangaroo in front of them even if it means getting hit by a car. So when I see one kangaroo running across the road in front of me, I slow down instantly because I know more could run out of the bush as well. Despite all this though, as an American I still enjoy the kangaroos and have not gotten tired of them yet much to the bewilderment of my colleagues.
However, according to this article Australians are finding more and more uses for their most recognizable animal:
KANGAROOS are no longer a pest but a valuable source of income for rural communities, a new study has found.
Adelaide University PhD student Dana Thomsen has examined the economic and social issues related to commercial kangaroo harvesting for the past five years.
She said that far from being a pest, kangaroos were now regarded as a valuable resource by graziers.
“Commercial harvesting of kangaroos, originally used as a form of pest control to reduce the pressure on grazing lands, is now a significant industry that directly employs around 4000 people and contributes up to $230 million a year to the Australian economy,” Ms Thomsen said.
Kangaroo meat and skins are now exported to 60 countries and the market is growing.
Kangaroo pelts are highly sought after in Europe for clothing, shoes and accessories while kangaroo meat is lauded for its low fat, high protein health benefits.
Some may find this hard to believe considering the cute factor that kangaroos possess, but I actually enjoy eating kangaroo meat and my wife does too. BBQ kangaroo meat is outstanding if you know how to cook it. The first time we grilled it we didn’t cook it right and it came out very dry. Since then my wife has figured out how to properly marinate the meat and how long to BBQ it and the meat has been outstanding. I’m all for eating more kangaroos and I hope one day I can find kangaroo meat in an American supermarket. They may be cute, but they are tasty too.
Gwen Stefani has found herself embroiled in a controversy over her decision to cover herself up in Malaysia:
Gwen Stefani was a good girl, just like she promised.
The 37-year-old pop star wowed fans in Muslim-majority Malaysia on Tuesday, performing in costumes that showed almost no skin after Islamic critics claimed that her revealing clothes could corrupt the country’s youth. She burst onto the stage wearing a black leotard under a white short-sleeved shirt and black-and-white striped hot pants suit, with black gloves up to her elbows.
“I am very inspired tonight,” Stefani told some 7,000 cheering fans at an indoor stadium.
She changed costumes for every song, remaining fully covered as she belted out tunes such as “The Sweet Escape,” “Rich Girl,” “Wind it Up” and “Hollaback Girl.” Stefani had promised to dress modestly after the 10,000-member National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students charged that her skimpy outfits and cheeky performances clashed with Islamic values. The opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party also accused her of promoting promiscuity and corrupting the country’s youth. In an interview with Galaxie, a local entertainment magazine, Stefani said she had made many changes for Malaysia, calling it a “major sacrifice.”
“I’ve been in the music industry for 20 years and this is the first time that I’m facing opposition from people who have misunderstood me,” she was quoted as saying.
“I’m not a bad girl,” she said.
I do think Gwen Stefani is being unfairly criticized over this. Let me provide some context about Malaysia that her critics do not provide. Malaysia is hardly the Islamic radical society that the critics of Gwen Stefani are trying to make it out to be. Gwen Stefani did not give into the pressure from any Islamic group, she just followed the country’s performance laws. The US has performance laws as well that can cause entertainers to be fined, Janet Jackson’s infamous wardrobe malfunction is plenty of evidence of this.
Additionally the Islamic student group criticizing Stefani wanted the government to cancel her concert which they did not do. Also this Islamic student group is not a mainstream group in Malaysia. Neither I or my Malaysian friends have ever heard of this group before. This group simply protested against her to get their names in the headlines and the media in the US played it up.
The media in Malaysia meanwhile could care less about this student group and if you do an internet search for Gwen Stefani on the website for Malaysia’s largest newspaper the New Strait Times you will find no articles critical of Gwen Stefani and supporting the small amount of protesters. In fact the articles such as this one prior to the concert were very positive of Stefani coming to Malaysia:
Gwen Stefani embraced her fans in Singapore and the audience responded, touched by her sincerity and charisma. FARIDUL ANWAR FARINORDIN was there and expects the great vibes to carry through to her concert in Malaysia on Tuesday.
GWEN Stefani has so much love and respect for her audience and it came through in an earnestly sweet and endearing way. At her The Sweet Escape Tour 2007 concert in Singapore last Tuesday, the 37-year-old Grammy winner acknowledged her fans, pointing out to their homemade "We Love You Gwen" banners and gleefully remarking: "You guys are really cute!"
This article was even critical of the country’s performance laws:
Okay, this is not really original, since multi award-winning vocalist Mariah Carey has done this before — singing her empowering ballad Hero while meeting her audience and shaking hands with them.
And Gwen surely deserves our love doing that too. However, the Malaysian audience is going to miss this. Too bad. For your information, just like Miss Carey (who was here for the Charmbracelet World Tour three years ago), Gwen has been issued a list of do’s and don’ts prior to her performance at the Putra Indoor Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Tuesday.
Apart from a "stricter" dress code, she was asked by the authorities not to have any physical contact with the audience. Yeah, what a bummer. Aren’t we all friendly, calm and peaceful people?.
But Gwen loves her Malaysian fans so much that she’s more than happy to do whatever’s necessary so as not to offend anybody here. So those who are getting antsy over her visit, there’s no reason to raise the alarm.
Here is an editorial from the New Strait Times after the concert that I think sums up the whole situation very well:
NO doubt about it, Gwen Stefani’s concert in Kuala Lumpur was a huge success, and an important one.
The bad press the country got over the American pop superstar’s recent Malaysian gig was unfortunate, as international headlines seemed to zero in on the protests by some minority zealots opposed to her show. To her credit, Stefani remained unbowed — though she did promise to be a "good girl" and adhere to the local guidelines on live acts that dictate the minimum dress code and some "no-no’s" for onstage behaviour. She kept her leotards on throughout, and in no way was her show less exciting. In the end, she proved, at least to her 16,000-strong audience at the Putra Stadium on Tuesday night, that a performer can follow our rules without diminishing the performance itself.
It was also commendable of the authorities to stick to their guns and allow the concert despite the uproar by Pas and the little-heard-of National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students, who wanted her show cancelled — reportedly because it could "promote promiscuity" and "corrupt the country’s youth", among other things. True, the authorities made Stefani stick to the guidelines on live performances. But whether or not the rules place the bar too high — or too low — is a secondary issue. There are rules for live shows in most countries, including Stefani’s own. The Malaysian guidelines may on the surface give the impression that we’re prudes, but they are, warts and all, standards defined for our heterogeneous developing nation, and Stefani has shown that there is at least a workable middle path.
The publicity Malaysia draws over the protests against numerous foreign acts who have landed here over the years, ranging from Mariah Carey three years ago to the Scorpions way back in 1996, has led some to wonder whether the majority of us agree with the agenda of those who want to dictate our lives based on their own narrow interpretation of religion or cultural norms. These groups often claim their own narrow-minded opposition to popular entertainment as the voice of the majority. This is all the more reason to understand why every successful show, with Stefani’s concert being the most recent, represents a victory over the intolerant trying to browbeat the rest of us into submission. Malaysians, in refusing to bow, must send these people a clear message that the show must go on — and will.
Does this sound like something from a wacko Muslim country that the US media wants you to believe Malaysia is? The US media could not even get the attendance numbers correct by claiming that only 7,000 showed up at the concert when in fact 16,000 did yet we should believe them that Malaysia is the second coming of the Taliban?
Now look at this video of the concert and tell me if this crowd looks like a bunch of Islamic extremists?:
First of all, you can tell Stefani is not wearing a burkah like the US media seems to want you to think she was required to wear and if you look at the crowd you can see that many of the females in the audience are wearing even less than her. The US media is trying to lump Malaysia in with other intolerant Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia when Malaysia is nothing like the Arab countries. The vast majority of Malaysians do not want to be like the Arabic countries and in fact enjoy being a liberal Islamic country. Just the fact that Gwen Stefani is allowed to play to an audience of 16,000 should tell you something right there. Can you imagine a singer like her singing in Riyadh or Damascus any time soon?
What people don’t realize is that ethnic Malays make up only 52% of the population while ethnic Chinese make up 30%, ethnic Indians make up 10%, and aboriginal Malayans make up the rest of the population. The Malays make up the Islamic population along with a few aboriginals which means that just over half the country is Muslim. Malaysia’s Muslims do follow Islamic Sharia law, but it is not the same as Sharia law that the Taliban used. Sharia law is dictated by Islamic scholars and Malaysia uses a more moderate form. The last time I was in Malaysia this year my Malaysian friend’s wife who is Muslim walked around with no head covering and no one cared. Notice Gwen Stefani did not have to wear a head covering either. This is hardly the makings of a Taliban society that the US media wants you to believe it is.
NEW South Wales Police have raided bikie clubhouses they suspect are being used to sell alcohol and drugs after closing time at local pubs.
Today’s raids on six bikie headquarters – from Chinderah in northern NSW to Nowra in the state’s south – was the latest stage in the Operation Ranmore crackdown on bikie gangs.
Two of the clubhouses were operated by the Rebels gang, two by the Finks and the other two by the Lone Wolf and Fourth Reich gangs.
I was asking a buddy of mine from New South Wales today what he thought about the continuing crack down on the bikie gangs in his state. He told me he was upset about it because he said the only thing that keeps the Lebanese gangs in the Sydney area in check are the bikies. If to many bikies go to jail than the Lebanese gangs will gain more power and he can’t stand the Lebanese gangsters. The things I learn about Australia over morning coffee.
An Australian woman was killed by a pet camel given to her as a 60th birthday present, police said Sunday.
The woman, whose name has not been released, was killed Saturday at her family sheep and cattle ranch near Mitchell, 350 miles west of the Queensland state capital Brisbane, state police Detective Senior Constable Craig Gregory said.
The 10-month-old male — weighing about 330 pounds — had knocked her to the ground then lay on top of her in what police suspect was mating behavior, Gregory said.
No this is not some complex geometry problem, but a stoplight in Melbourne. Metroblogging Melbourne has a great posting to decipher what is known as the Swanston St. Traffic Light of Death. When I first moved here and came upon this stoplight I was the first vehicle stopped at the light and wasn’t sure what to do, but the honking drivers behind me got me moving and I just turned left to get a way from this intersection. I have since figured out this complex light, but still hate this intersection.
If it isn’t wacky trafficlights to confuse you with there is also the infamous hook turn that has to be seen to be believed, but basically if you want to turn right you have to hang out in the far left of the intersection and allow all the traffic to go by before making a turn. Like I said it has to be seen to believed and I just avoid these intersections because of how wacky they are. Driving in downtown Melbourne with its wacky traffic laws, trams, and pedestrians sharing the street with you makes for some interesting driving. That is why I often just take the train into downtown, its a heck of a lot less stressful.
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