Mt. Baw Baw: Awesome! Today we are going to the snow. Legendary! And as the sub-title states we are going to Mt. Baw Baw to toboggan, snowball fight and eat snow. Firstly we had to hire some equipment so we didn’t freeze or slide off the road while driving and there’s only one place to get all your snow and sporting needs and that’s at Baw Baw Extreme Sports.
Luckily it was only an 80km drive to the Mt. Baw Baw ski resort thingy, too easy, but it took us over an hour and a half, maybe 2 hours, to complete. When we came closer and closer to the peak we were surprised to see more and more snow scattered around the road until, finally, we arrived at the entrance to the little village where there was snow everywhere.
Levi took the liberty in throwing the first snowball at me so I returned the favour by hurling a huge chunk off ice at him. Sadly he dodged it and scrambled away to safety. Next time! Our first destination was a little hill where we tobogganed to our hearts content until Mum got too cold and we all complained about our hunger. We went to the ski lodge to get some hot chocolate, pizza and hot chips. Delish!
After consuming our much beloved lunch we set of for a more epic, more dangerous and steeper hill than the last. In the middle of this slope there was a small mound that stretched from one end to the other that acted as a jump ramp. Once we had gone down a few times I grew tired of having to walk back up again so I just kept on going down another road. Then, as if out of the middle of nowhere, it hit me. Not a thought but a small, spherical clump of snow right in the back, and so it began. I quickly recomposed myself then rallied the troops; Levi, Emily, and Miriam, and we began the hard task of defeating Dad.
At first we had the element of surprise until, that was, we lost sight of Dad, then like a taipan lashing out at it’s prey, Dad jumped out and with him came half a dozen snow balls. We took cover, faster than a fly dodging a fly swat, but Miriam and Levi weren’t fast enough and were knocked down. They soon returned to their feet and quickly sought shelter from the blizzard of snow balls. Emily and I retaliated and sent back a dozen snow balls in Dad’s direction but he was as fast to retreat as he was to strike.
The skirmish continued as Dad gained ground with us retreating back down the hill. That’s were I lost them all, all except for Levi that is. We found ourselves a nice, compact niche in the wall in this valley of snow. We thought we’d be able to sneak up on Dad from behind, but then TREACHERY!! Miriam and Emily had deserted us and left for Dad’s side and worst of all they were now hailing snow balls down upon us.
It was easy getting rid of Emily and Miriam but once Dad had found out what all the commotion was about he simply doused us in snow. Levi and I went to seek the shelter of some trees and upon finding some made ourselves a small dugout in the snow for protection. To our dismay he found us and buried us in a ton of snow. Enough was enough. I had lost so many good men that, conjuring the miniscule amount of dignity I still retained, I pulled out the white flag. Surrender was less humiliating than continuing to fight with the limited resources we had.
Puffing Billy: Today we celebrated the birth of Levi. Hoorah! In doing so we gave him gifts of St. Kilda merchandise, board games and a Lego teddy courtesy of moi. But, Mum and Dad had a surprise in store for us and it took us nearly the whole journey to figure it out. Finally, Emily guessed Puffing Billy after noticing a sign pointing to it. Puffing Billy, for those who don’t know, is a fully operational steam train that is still running thanks to many volunteers that help keep it alive.
When we arrived at the platform, we all boarded the train and then set off for some park on the other side of Melbourne. We arrived in one piece and then had some lunch before playing on the playground. We then visited a house a mere 100m from the platform where some guy had set up a gigantic train-set that filled at least three 6×4 rooms. The tiny world had towns, trains, mines, farms and other detailed scenery but, sadly, we were a bit rushed because we had to catch our train or wait 2 more hours for the next one.
When we arrived at the station we walked back to the car and left. That was the end of Levi’s birthday.
