The day after our High Country hike we weren’t quite done with the mountains, so we pointed the car up towards Mount Buller. On the way out of Mansfield we passed our new favourite road sign again – a yellow diamond with two little gnome silhouettes and “CAUTION CROSSING AHEAD” printed underneath. The kids took this as official proof that we were driving into gnome territory and kept watch out the windows, just in case.
The road wound higher and higher until the trees thinned and the views opened right up. By the time we rolled into the ski village at the top it was only about 18°C with a cool wind, which felt almost shocking after the heat down below. We grabbed coffees, pulled on extra layers and wandered out onto the grass where the ski runs drop away in winter.
With the lifts sitting still and no snow on most of the slopes, the place had that strange off-season calm – quiet, but full of hints of how busy it must get when the powder arrives. We ducked into the visitor centre, picked up a gnome trail sheet and set Georgia loose as head gnome ranger. She marched us around the village ticking off each little gnome hidden in gardens, beside buildings and near the lifts.
Then we found the real treasure: a leftover strip of snow tucked at the bottom of one of the ski runs. Not much by alpine standards, but to two kids in shorts and summer outfits it might as well have been a full-blown blizzard. There was a good three feet of compacted snow in places, enough to stomp, dig and slip about on.
Dotty charged in first in her bright red Christmas romper, absolutely delighted to be ankle-deep in snow in the middle of an Australian summer. Georgia followed, testing every possible way to make footprints and trying to see how far she could slide without actually falling over. Their toes got cold long before their enthusiasm did.
We finished up with a slow loop through the village, watching the chairlifts hanging quiet against the blue sky and mentally filing Buller under “places we’d love to come back to in winter”.
Just as we were heading back to the car, Ali spotted a high ropes climbing course winding its way around the hillside – platforms, cables and obstacles strung above the ground with mountain views in every direction. It had “birthday adventure” written all over it. In a very on-brand move, she walked straight over to the desk and booked herself a slot for the next day.
It felt like the perfect way to end the day: snow in summer for the kids, mountain coffee for the grown-ups, and a big high-ropes challenge lined up for Ali’s birthday. But that one deserves its own story.
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