Here is a great little insight to our ski fields here in NZ
https://weareexplorers.co/ski-fields-in-new-zealand/
https://weareexplorers.co/ski-fields-in-new-zealand/
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International (Europe/Japan/Southern Hemisphere) 2023 Southern Hemisphere Ski Resort/Conditions/Meetups
- Thread starter Decreed_It
- Start date
So. I’ve had two stints at Mt Ruapehu over the last two weeks.
Last week was three awesome midweek days at Whakapapa. Three bluebird days ensued with no winds. Snow was hard and fast to begin with then everywhere after midday was superb spring conditions. So we had lots of long lazy skiing on sublime sun drenched untouched snow. Black Magic and the Far west T bar were particularly good in the afternoons which I literally had to myself
Check out all the people with me on Black Magic The area in this photo is probably at least the size of twenty football fields
They are in for an awesome spring skiing session over there.
I drove home on the Saturday and came back up on Monday night.
This week Turoa has also produced the goods with a 3 km top to bottom groomer run keeping smiles on our faces many times.
Turoa has a 2.55 mt base ( supposedly the biggest in the world) so once again we are hoping for a very long season. (This is of course all subject to what happens with the financial issues that are ongoing.)
Turoa skifield from Broadbent Flats
Looking down Turoa from the top
Heading home to Wellington tomorrow (300kms) and then back down south again on Monday
Heading to Ohau and Roundhill for my daughters birthday ski holiday then back to Queenstown for a few weeks
Cheers all.
.
Last week was three awesome midweek days at Whakapapa. Three bluebird days ensued with no winds. Snow was hard and fast to begin with then everywhere after midday was superb spring conditions. So we had lots of long lazy skiing on sublime sun drenched untouched snow. Black Magic and the Far west T bar were particularly good in the afternoons which I literally had to myself
Check out all the people with me on Black Magic The area in this photo is probably at least the size of twenty football fields
They are in for an awesome spring skiing session over there.
I drove home on the Saturday and came back up on Monday night.
This week Turoa has also produced the goods with a 3 km top to bottom groomer run keeping smiles on our faces many times.
Turoa has a 2.55 mt base ( supposedly the biggest in the world) so once again we are hoping for a very long season. (This is of course all subject to what happens with the financial issues that are ongoing.)
Turoa skifield from Broadbent Flats
Looking down Turoa from the top
Heading home to Wellington tomorrow (300kms) and then back down south again on Monday
Heading to Ohau and Roundhill for my daughters birthday ski holiday then back to Queenstown for a few weeks
Cheers all.
.
Terrible customer service. And having it published on the front page of Stuff may impact the mountain's bottom line.This one is on the front page of Stuff (probably the most popular general news site in NZ):
Stuff
www.stuff.co.nz
I hope the instructor who threatened this skier was reprimanded. Management needs to contact the skier who was teaching friends and apologize.
I'd want to hear more from the resort before assuming that the story as portrayed in the article is the whole story. Maybe they've seen this guy with multiple sets of "friends" or something.
If there's none of that, then certainly that's really awful service/attitude to take with someone trying to have fun with friends. I guess TC had the opportunity to say more to the reporter and didn't, based on the one brief comment in the article. But it wouldn't be the first time someone in that kind of news article only gave their own, incomplete, side of things.
I'm reading about all kinds of factors not included in the original story that might have happened and justified the instructor's threat.
How important do you think these are for making this teaching scenario OK rather than justifiably forbidden?
--as long as the teacher does not get paid (it's difficult to prove a negative)?
--as long as the teacher is not an instructor somewhere (it's difficult to prove a negative)?
--as long as the teacher keeps skis on?
--as long as the teacher has not been seen teaching people on other days?
--as long as the teacher is only giving short duration tips, not teaching fundamentals that take a good amount of time for people to learn?
--as long as the teacher can prove that those being taught are family members or close friends?
How important do you think these are for making this teaching scenario OK rather than justifiably forbidden?
--as long as the teacher does not get paid (it's difficult to prove a negative)?
--as long as the teacher is not an instructor somewhere (it's difficult to prove a negative)?
--as long as the teacher keeps skis on?
--as long as the teacher has not been seen teaching people on other days?
--as long as the teacher is only giving short duration tips, not teaching fundamentals that take a good amount of time for people to learn?
--as long as the teacher can prove that those being taught are family members or close friends?
Treble Cone are certainly seeming to shoot themselves in the foot with this.
Especially with a low snow year when they need all the customers they can get
$160 a day for this :
They rate themselves very highly but with only two lifts they suffer from long queues very regularly
I currently don't rate the place very highly
Yep, that TC story is a puzzling one - hard to know if it was an overzealous employee or a media non-story on a quiet news day.
TC certainly has a fine tradition as a skier's mountain. Very little beginner/intermediate terrain but lots of nice pitches full of bumps. (Well, that's the way I remember it from decades past. This season with such low snow seems unrepresentative.) Have to see how the take-over by Cardrona plays out on 'customer service' over future seasons.
TC certainly has a fine tradition as a skier's mountain. Very little beginner/intermediate terrain but lots of nice pitches full of bumps. (Well, that's the way I remember it from decades past. This season with such low snow seems unrepresentative.) Have to see how the take-over by Cardrona plays out on 'customer service' over future seasons.
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- Jun 6, 2016
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Kind of surprised there hasn't been any whoot-whooting from Chile - seems like they're having a pretty good year .....
Ski Chile 2023 vroom vroom - Page 11
Seems this year is off to an auspicious start. At least, in the old lady circuit, where several older urbanite friends and aunts have told me, categorically, that this winter will be rainy. Based on the Chilean meteorological services last report, they are well informed, as such is the...
www.tetongravity.com
About 12 days ago (Thursday 28th Sept) managed to score a day at Ohau. This was following a late season 1m dump the previous Sunday.
Ohau is an interesting, small, private field. One main lift - a dbl chair - servicing a nice looking bowl on both sides with about 1100-1300ft vertical with a mix of blue and black runs. Can hike up another 200ft or so if feeling energetic. The other lifts are a magic carpet for never-evers and a short poma for beginners.
The road up is basically quite an ordeal. It's a road graded on the side of an incredibly steep climb - think one of those vids of the high passes in Pakistan and that's roughly the picture. It's narrow (one lane really) and no idea what happens if two vehicles meet going in opposite directions. The good news is the road keeps the crowds away and the ascent once completed provides stunning views of the valley below.
Unfortunately 4 days of warm weather had settled the sizable dump and the coverage was not the best off the groomers. It's very rocky so we stayed mostly on the groomers.
There was a small group of skiers training GS . In terms of live in the gates have only ever seen amateur club level in Australia. These guys seemed pretty good and had a brief chat to one of the skiers near the end of the morning. Turned out to be Adam Zampa who was there with his brother Andreas. Apparently the Slovakians were training there during the southern winter. Wished him well for the upcoming WC season. Unfortunately at that point they packed up for the day so no vid of their skiing.
Was interesting to then ski the pitch they'd been using for the training. That's a dark blue run basically from top to bottom.
Since then we've settled on our new house in Wanaka and just enjoyed a pleasant evening meal looking out at our view of TC, Black Peak and Mt Aspiring. Will be much more comfortable when the furniture arrives - we currently have only an an airbed and 3 ultra cheap camp chairs! Already looking forward to winter 2024...
Ohau is an interesting, small, private field. One main lift - a dbl chair - servicing a nice looking bowl on both sides with about 1100-1300ft vertical with a mix of blue and black runs. Can hike up another 200ft or so if feeling energetic. The other lifts are a magic carpet for never-evers and a short poma for beginners.
The road up is basically quite an ordeal. It's a road graded on the side of an incredibly steep climb - think one of those vids of the high passes in Pakistan and that's roughly the picture. It's narrow (one lane really) and no idea what happens if two vehicles meet going in opposite directions. The good news is the road keeps the crowds away and the ascent once completed provides stunning views of the valley below.
Unfortunately 4 days of warm weather had settled the sizable dump and the coverage was not the best off the groomers. It's very rocky so we stayed mostly on the groomers.
There was a small group of skiers training GS . In terms of live in the gates have only ever seen amateur club level in Australia. These guys seemed pretty good and had a brief chat to one of the skiers near the end of the morning. Turned out to be Adam Zampa who was there with his brother Andreas. Apparently the Slovakians were training there during the southern winter. Wished him well for the upcoming WC season. Unfortunately at that point they packed up for the day so no vid of their skiing.
Was interesting to then ski the pitch they'd been using for the training. That's a dark blue run basically from top to bottom.
Since then we've settled on our new house in Wanaka and just enjoyed a pleasant evening meal looking out at our view of TC, Black Peak and Mt Aspiring. Will be much more comfortable when the furniture arrives - we currently have only an an airbed and 3 ultra cheap camp chairs! Already looking forward to winter 2024...
Yep. It is without a doubt the scariest ski field access road in New Zealand.
The first time I drove it was in a 6 berth Campervan with snow everywhere and chains on the wheels.
I was glad that the van had engine brakes for the afternoon descent!
Earlier this year I drove up it in my Mitsi ute and the top half was in a whiteout. I could hardly see a car length in front of me. I am a very confident driver but that scared the s..t out of me. I didn't even know that I was in the carpark until I almost collided with another ute that was parked in there.
Ten minutes after arriving the cloud lifted and we had a good day up there.
A morning skiing Cardrona today.
It really is the end of the season in terms of coverage and with a cool night it was firm n fast! Cardona is not as picturesque as some other resorts - doesn't have a lake in front. Although the view down to Queenstown is pretty good on the high road back from Captains.
Hadn't skied here since about 1988. It's grown some.
May do a last day tomorrow depending on weather and inclination.
Furniture arriving Friday so that's fantastic.
It really is the end of the season in terms of coverage and with a cool night it was firm n fast! Cardona is not as picturesque as some other resorts - doesn't have a lake in front. Although the view down to Queenstown is pretty good on the high road back from Captains.
Hadn't skied here since about 1988. It's grown some.
May do a last day tomorrow depending on weather and inclination.
Furniture arriving Friday so that's fantastic.
Wow. That track is quite enough on a blue bird day. A white-out would be something else....
Last day of the season (for me) at Cardrona today. Was good fun on the early hard pack but the afternoon softening was a bit over the top. Let's hope 2024 is a better NZ season.
I've had a great season, so far . Drove to Queenstown three times, once just to deliver a car to my daughter ,very early in the season.
I've had 24 days at Remarks, Coronet Peak and Mount Hutt. We had a day each in at Roundhill and Ohau, and so far about 10 at Ruapehu
Hoping for a few spring days next week at Turoa before they shut at Labour weekend .
We were at Turoa last week and it was awesome spring skiing from the bottom of the Giant up
Ground truths (as they say). The poor season may be largely a Wanaka thing and TC seemed to fair especially badly this time around. Still, we have season passes already locked in for 24.
Wondering where the cheapest petrol in NZ can be found. At around $3/litre it's a noticeable cost. Best we've found is
Edit: Correction - Omarama was 276.
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I use the Gaspy app. I need to! It’s approx 2000km round trip Wellies to Qtown!! Omarama was the cheapest this year. Last year it was Parnassus and Fairlie.
In Wellington todays there is a 31 cents a litre difference from one side of town to the other.