On Tuesday, February 19, 2002, Chris and I and our buddy Neville hiked up to the top of Mt Kosciuszko, Australia's highest peak, at 2228m (7310 feet) tall.  It's about six hours drive southwest of Sydney, and maybe two and a half out of Canberra, on the New South Wales/Victoria state border.

We stayed in the ski village of Thredbo the night before... it's a great little village hugging the valley the ski resort's in, with everything walkable and a stream at the bottom with platypus in it.  The village also is below the treeline, so there are snow gums everywhere--and being below treeline, it's also below most of the biting flies that we found in the treeless alpine area.  I must say, the setting was unique: I've never been in an alpine village with eucalyptus before--the ski runs had stands of eucalyptus between them!

Anyway, we stayed at a great apartment for three nights--the Lantern Apartments.  I'd highly recommend them; they have parking and you can walk down the steps and terraces to the town square.

To get to the trailhead couldn't be easier: it's a quick walk to the bottom of the chairlift, then the trail starts at the top.  It's a fairly simple hike: 12km round trip, with a 300m gain to get to the top.  Pretty easy!

What we went there for was to enjoy the alpine scenery, do some hiking, and see some wildflowers.  Pictures are to the left.  Click one to begin.

- Dan