Ski Club 2.0 Home
Snow Reports
FAQFAQ

Mail for help.Help!!

Log in to snowHeads to make it MUCH better! Registration's totally free, of course, and makes snowHeads easier to use and to understand, gives better searching, filtering etc. as well as access to 'members only' forums, discounts and deals that U don't even know exist as a 'guest' user. (btw. 50,000+ snowHeads already know all this, making snowHeads the biggest, most active community of snow-heads in the UK, so you'll be in good company)..... When you register, you get our free weekly(-ish) snow report by email. It's rather good and not made up by tourist offices (or people that love the tourist office and want to marry it either)... We don't share your email address with anyone and we never send out any of those cheesy 'message from our partners' emails either. Anyway, snowHeads really is MUCH better when you're logged in - not least because you get to post your own messages complaining about things that annoy you like perhaps this banner which, incidentally, disappears when you log in :-)
Username:-
 Password:
Remember me:
👁 durr, I forgot...
Or: Register
(to be a proper snow-head, all official-like!)

New Zealand

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Does anyone have experience of skiing in New Zealand particularly resorts near to Queensland / Wanaka

I'm also looking to do other adventurous activities and require cheapish accommodation

Would welcome lots of useful advice
ski holidays
 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I would have thought that there are others here with better knowledge than me. But in their absence, here is some stuff based on a month spent there a 5 years ago.

Queenstown is a great place. A bit like imagine Harrogate might be if the WI convention was to be replaced by the X-games. All types of accommodation available from back packers to plush hotels, same goes for eating places. If your length of stay justifies it I would recommend a camper-van. We hired one and it was a great way to explore the ski stations, the campsites are very well appointed. You need to bear in mind that like Scotland the ski stations can sometimes close at short notice due to high winds. So access to a vehicle can mean you can get to explore the place on wind-bound days. You also need to bear in mind that most ski stations are up non-mettled roads. You can drive up them, but most folk opt for the pimped up local access bus, which of course mean extra cost. You have a Choice of which ski station you visit on a particular day. When we we were there there were various a la carte ski pass options.

Wanaka is a bit like Fort William, but smaller and sleepier. As a local t-shirt had it, a "quiet little drinking town, with a skiing habit”.

I would recommend a trip to Ohau, a little north of Wanaka, which is really a self contained “resort”, with all standards of accommodation including camping, but all with a chilled out communal feel. The ski station (up the ubiquitous rough track) looks limited from the piste map, but then you soon realise that it is a cross between Glencoe and Argentier, in that you can ski anywhere that isn't a rock and the views are stunning. We ended up extending our visit there.
latest report
 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Do a search on the forum there are quite a few similar threads with lots of info and opinion on where to ski, where to stay and on work etc.
ski holidays
 You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
Not sure if this will help to much as I snowboarded in other places in New Zealand.

I have snowboarded on Mt Ruaphu and Mt Hutt but not Queensland. Mt Ruaphu (Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings) a great place to go and often gets overlooked, not the largest ski area but to be honest everything is much smaller in New Zealand. It is an active volcano which in quite cool. You also have Rotorua a couple of hours away with all the hot pools and Lake Taupo about an hour away. You are in a national park there is a lot to see and as long as you don't mind driving you can get quite cheap accommodation out of town.

Mt Hutt was ok. You had the alpine parrots here which were interesting. Its quite small but it meant it was quite quiet and there were a few other ski areas round here. There wasn't a huge amount to do here but you're not too far from Christchurch. We managed to get quite cheap accommodation here but everything was quite spread out.

You really need to hire a car in New Zealand, you don't need to buy snow chains as most mountains will rent them to you but this can work out more expensive then renting them with the car. If you fancy going on a bit of an excursion my favourite place in New Zealand is Wellington. Also small airlines such as Sounds Air can be cheaper for domestic flights if you need them. As it is out of season and if you are brave you could hire a camper van quite cheaply. I have always used independent batch rentals for accommodation, there are a few websites such as rent a batch just goggle holiday lettings NZ and you will find a few. Generally you can haggle a bit if you are staying in one place a long time. Also make sure you rent somewhere with a wood burner, the properties are not heated very well and these make a huge difference.
ski holidays



Terms and conditions  Privacy Policy