Verbier

So, we're back home after an amazing skitrip to Verbier in Switzerland where we spent christmas and new years with my family. Brett finally got a white Christmas and we got to do some of the best skiing we have ever done in some very sweet pow. Because of the slow internet connection in our house in Switzerland I could't really update my blog so instead I will do a recap of the highlights of the trip now.

We actually started the trip in Brisbane where we spent a couple of days celebrating christmas with Brett's family. We stayed at Brett's sister and her boyfriend's house and played with their two beautiful dogs Xena and Lucy. 

After spending two days in Brissie, Brett's sister dropped us off at the airport and we were supposed to go to Sydney - Singapore - London. But that's when everything went pear shaped. The women in the check-in had absolutely no idea what she was doing and managed to loose our booking in the system. And she didn't know how to fix it so she sent us over to ticketing to sort out the problem ourselves - which we did. But when we came back to drop off our bags she claimed we missed the cut-off time for check-in and we had to wait for the next plane. Useless cow.

Since we would miss our connecting flight in Sydney there was no point catching te next flight, so instead we tried to get on a direct flight from Brisbane and rushed over to the International terminal. Unfortunately the flight was full so we ended up staying another night in Brisbane.

The next morning we managed to get on a flight to Hong Kong, but  since there was no connecting flight to London the same day we had to spend a night in Hong Kong - which was great since I had never been. So we had some delicious food and drinks, did some shopping and sightseeing, went to bed at 4am and woke up at 5.30am to go to the airport. 

4.5 hours into the flight, when we were well and truly asleep and happy to finally be on our way to Europe, we were however told we had to turn back to Hong Kong as Heathrow was closed down due to a snowstorm and we couldn't get permission to land anywhere else in Europe.

So 9 hours later we landed back in Hong Kong and had lost a day of our lives. So. extremely. disappointing. But what can you do. 

The next morning Heathrow was still closed and we started to think we would not be able to make it to Verbier. But since we didn't really want to go to London anyway, we started looking for some cheap tickets to go somewhere else in Europe, and found some extremely cheap tickets to Geneva via Tel Aviv. So Brett shaved his beard and we rushed back to the airport, were questioned by mossad agents who were very suspicious that we only bought the tickets 3 hours ago and went to Isreal!

We had another 6 hour transit in Tel Aviv which we spent eating kosher food and surfing the web. At 10am the 21th of December we finally landed in Geneva after 6 days of traveling. Phew. 

Finally in Verbier and keen to do some skiing we hit the slopes straight away. It was snowing the entire first week and there were no people in the slopes at all. Paradise! We stayed at a really cute chalet right next to the lift, about a 15 minutes walk into town and with an amazing view of the mountains.

We skied some amazing powder from the top of Mont Fort (3300m).

 We had lots of vin chaud and long lunches in the sunshine.

We bought a Christmas tree and celebrated Christmas on the right day (24th) whilst it was snowing outside.

In the evening Santa came around and handed out some pressies!

A few days after Christmas we went to Chamonix to check out the town and hang out for a day.

 And a few days after it was New Years. Brett was very excited about this since fireworks aren't permitted in Australia. So we bought a whole bunch of fireworks and firecrackers and spent ages setting them off. Good times. 

The day after new years we said goodbye to my family and Verbier and went back home - which went a bit smoother than the way up. 

After we landed back in Sydney we picked up a very pissed off Shirin from her cat sitter Miss Lemona (wannabe kittynapper) and right now she purring and has cuddled up to me on the couch. I think she at least missed us a little bit!

It's good to be back home.