MT KOSCIUSZKO SUMMIT WALK / AUSTRALIA


On the Easter long weekend I decided to take the kids to climb the summit of Mt Kosciuszko. I booked a motel through Booking.com, and like always, filtered by price and choose the cheapest one. We ended up at the Alpine Resort Motel. So we set off early from Junee on Good Friday, stopping at Kiandra heritage precinct to have some lunch. We arrive in Jindabyne earlier than check-in so we go back into the centre of town as there is an art show and a quilt show. We kill an hour or so before it is time to check-in. Our room is a little small, but it is enough for the four of us.

After check-in, I have a nap as doing all the driving is really quite tiring. After our rest, we decide to go in search of food, however, we are a bit early and nothing is opened yet! We end up going to Lake Jindabyne Hotel and the food is so delicious and filling that we struggle back to our motel. In an effort to work off dinner, we decide to play a few games of table tennis and pool. A few ends up turning into a few hours, but it’s all good, as we are really enjoying ourselves!

We head to bed and wake up early for our trip up Mt Kosciuszko. We drive over to Thredbo, us and every other person in NSW! It’s absolutely packed full of walkers and mountain bike riders. We have to park 1km away, which only adds to the kids excitement (it doesn’t, I’m being sarcastic). We wait in a quickly moving queue and purchase our lift tickets, which cost $70 for the four of us,

The kids are freaking out on the chairlift and are happy to be off it, even if it means a 13km walk.

About 250m into the walk, Amy tries to sit down. She’s already had enough. I urge her on and she starts walking again, only for Luke to start having an epic nosebleed. Sigh. It’s going to be a long walk. We make it to the lookout and Amy is ready to pack it in. Mt Kosciuszko is the hump above Amy’s head. Pretty unimpressive at this stage.

We start off again and we come across the kilometre markers, although I don’t actually explain what these mean to the kids as I don’t really need them knowing…

 And the last one:

Amy struggled a little, not with the walk, but I think she was bored. While ever I was talking and making up stories, she happily walked along, but as soon as I stopped, she would start complaining again. I just had to keep her mind off the task. Even the scenery wasn’t enough to take her mind off the walk. Here we passed Cootapatamba Lake, which is the highest altitude lake in Australia.

So, as I said earlier, Thredbo was quite busy. I was not expecting however, to have to stand in line for 20 minutes on top of Australia’s highest mountain just so I could have a photo taken with the trig.

But I did.

And it was worth it.

And then the walk back again…..

It took us about 4 hours from the top of the chairlift to when we returned to the chairlift.

A couple of important notes:

 1. Take plenty of water, I didn’t drink enough and I felt it!

2. Just because it’s cold, doesn’t mean you won’t get sunburned. Think of Goldmember in Austin Powers, yep, that was me afterwards.

But do it – you won’t regret it!!


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