Wednesday 5 September 2012

Making Memories:: Roadtripping with Toyota







I always remember road trips from my childhood. Those early starts when Mum and Dad roused us from our slumber to get dressed, get in the car, and leave home at 4:30am to get on the road.

I was the smallest, and therefore neatly sandwiched between my two sisters in the back seat.

Our road trips were punctuated by stops at the petrol station, a strong desire to reach our destination, and some sibling bickering.

Road trips, for me, were like the prologue and epilogue for a memorable trip away.

We were lucky to be guests of Toyota last week. On Friday we drove down to Thredbo, after Matt finished teaching, in the darkness. In the Toyota Prado we forged our way almost seven hours out of Sydney. When we arrived it was snowing heavily, something I've never seen before - and the kids were wide awake at 10:30pm, spellbound by the flurry of white snowflakes flying towards our headlights. It was their first time to see snow, and they were enchanted and ridiculously excited.

On the winding road into Thredbo we passed other cars that had had to pull over, the snow so heavy it had made it impossible for them to continue.

We finally reached our hotel, hurriedly unpacked the car out in the snow, and then went to bed. Ah bliss.

We awoke on the Saturday morning to such a beautiful and memorable sight. A thick, heavy carpet of the most pristine snow across the countryside. Banked up on our window ledge, icicles frozen in motion from the guttering, it was Narnia-esque.

We rugged up and headed off to get kitted out, then off to Friday Flats for a day of skiing delights!

The kids were booked into Thredbo Land, and Matt scurried up the hill as quick as he could to snowboard the morning away. Me? Oh poor me. I had to suck it up and spend the morning with Christoph. The hot Austrian ski instructor. I know. Poor, poor me.

Prior to this particular morning, I had been enduring great, great skiing performance anxiety. At one point I had talked myself out of it. Then back into it. Then out of it. Then back into it. I was into it, lucky for Christoph, and off we went. I had such a hoot!

In the afternoon we got back together again and went back to the hotel. It's no understatement that we were all k-to-the-nackered. We lay on our beds watching TV and recharging our batteries.

That was until we rocked up to dinner with the Toyota crew (where - I am sorry friends - I had to wear ugg boots because the size of the blisters on my shins were out of control - I know - the shame of it), where Tiny hijacked my phone and tapped into her inner food blogger and started Instagramming the dinner plates. If you follow me on Instagram you will know this to be true.

But let me go into more detail later in the week. When I can recoup my thoughts, and share the awesomeness of hitting the road and making memories as a family. Trust me - it was like soup for the soul. Snow for the soul.


Disclosure: We travelled to Thredbo courtesy of Toyota. We drove in the rugged luxury of the Toyota Prado Kakadu in the darkness and against the elements. Honesty is the best policy. We had a great time. I wanted to share.

1 comment:

Small Catalogue said...

You dudes are total snow bunnies. Look at you all!! Too cute.