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A wild week in Perisher
Story time | Snow & Flow August 2022
- By Saskia G.
The fun started right at the airport. Flying in from the Gold Coast, one of the other girls on the trip had landed from Brisbane just before me and was waiting in luggage collection. We became instant friends after realising we were wearing the exact same pants! The universe must have aligned us that morning, I thought. Within half an hour Megan and Fernanda had picked us up from the airport and the journey began! Some of the girls had landed the day prior or even lived nearby so off we went to collect everyone before beginning the adventure to our beautiful snow lodge, located at the base of Perisher Mountain...
Nestled in the forest, this part of the mountain doesn’t usually receive a lot of snowfall but as if the weather gods knew Wild Women Journeys was coming, we were treated to snowfall the night we arrived which was so magical! After settling into our rooms and turning the heating on, it was time to gather downstairs for our first women’s circle of the trip. We all introduced ourselves and shared a bit about what made us come along on the trip; it was so inspiring to hear everyones unique stories and what is going on in their lives. Some women were my age (26), some were older and one or two were slightly younger. None of that mattered though as we all chatted and cooked dinner together.
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The good vibes were already beginning as we began to connect and waited for a few extra guests to arrive. Everyone was excited to get to the slopes the next morning, and it had been a big day of driving, so it was an early night for us!
The next morning was like a scene from a Christmas Wonderland ( a European one). Everything was blanketed in centimetres of snow outside!! We felt extra cosy in our double story private lodge as we all woke up to these absolute SCENES, and were treated to coffee and breakfast. After fuelling up it was time to get organised for a day on the mountain! We packed lunches and snacks, geared ourselves up and joined the queue to get to Perisher. Once we arrived, those of us who didn’t bring our own skis / snowboards headed to the hire desk and got sorted out.
Then we broke up into snowboarders and skiers and got our snow legs going! I opted for ski lessons the first two days as it had been a while since I'd been on any kind of slope and I wasn’t super confident navigating the runs. We had a really wonderful ski instructor, Niko, who was so patient and super experienced! It meant we could focus on enjoying the skiing rather than stressing about which direction we were going and it brought back so many good memories from the last time I had ski’d. Again, the weather gods had us in their favour as the mountain copped the seasons best powder on the first day! It was so much fun adventuring around the tracks and enjoying the beautiful snow.
It just so happened that my bed mate (queen bed) was also a skier and had opted for lessons too! We became close as we both got a feel for navigating and coordinating ourselves with four extra extensions to our limbs haha. No easy feat! I loved the ski lifts; seeing all the people carving up the mountains and absolutely shredding was so epic. I couldn’t stop taking photos!!
We met for lunch and reconnected with everyone before we had more free time to keep playing in the snow! Safe to say we were all very tired by the end of the day and looking forward to heading back to our cosy base with stiff legs, bruised butts but massive smiles!!
Meg took us through a lovely yin yoga session to stretch out all those sore muscles before we feasted on delicious, wholesome home cooked food for dinner. Thank you Megan and Fernanda for your absolute chef level cooking!! It was so nice being looked after like that and not needing to worry about organising food. For the full time working gals, it was such a treat just being told what time to be ready by and being driven around as well as cooked for. Honestly the trip of a lifetime!
We had a full day of skiing and boarding the next day which was super fun, and there’d been a good amount of snowfall overnight again - so lucky!! This time Niko took Susie and I to some longer trails and we really got to enjoy the mountain. He challenged us but made sure we felt safe the whole time. Meeting everyone at the mountain’s food hall for a hot choccy and lunch was so fun as we all shared our videos and stories of the morning. Then back out into the snow we went. Wild Women don’t waste good snow!
Again we had a yummy dinner and this night we were treated to something extra special; sound healing! Meg and Fernanda had some friends on the mountain who had these amazing crystal bowld and knew how to play them for vibrational healing. It was such a relaxing experience as we all got cosy on our matts and listened to them play.
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We had a beautiful rest day in between the skiing where we got to experience a live demonstration of the Wim Hoff Breathwork and Cold Immersion Method by Leah Scott. She took us all out to a spot in the creek where we got into the freezing cold mountain water to challenge ourselves and use our breath to overcome the discomfort of the cold. We then had a lovely afternoon at a nearby Gin Distillery where we had the most delicious lunch and some fun drinks. The perfect way to finish off the day before our next adventure; trekking up Mt Kosciuszko.
To be completely raw and real here, I was really intimidated by the concept of hiking up one of Australia’s tallest mountains, in the snow! I was so sore already from skiing and I had also gotten my period (always inconveniently timed) so I was nervous about my ability to make it to the top. I almost didn’t go, but luckily decided in the morning to give it a shot. I am SO glad I did it! It was challenging but holy crap was it so beautiful and amazing and we all cheered each other on and took plenty of breaks. Getting to the top felt like such an achievement and I was so happy the whole way down. An amazing way to finish the trip, and honestly well done to the girls for putting together such a fun and wild itinerary for us!
The next day it was time to pack up and head back to Canberra, dropping everyone off with lots of tears and love. Aww, sad!! Something really beautiful happened between those off with later flights though, we all headed to a restaurant in the city centre and ate The. Most. Amazing. Food. EVER. I’m not exaggerating when I say this was five stars!! It's called Inka (from memory) if you want to ever try it. I boarded my plane with Meg (same flight home!), a full tummy, and some incredible memories that will stay with me forever. Oh and of course some new lifelong friends!
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