Australasia > New Zealand > South Island > Christchurch > Skiing and winter sports > Articles > Snow Job: Letter from New Zealand

November 2000: I’ve just come back from Australia where the crude upbeat echoes of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie oi oi oi” are still reverberating throughout the great southern land. The country is on a self-esteem kick, the like of which, they say, has never been seen before. This display of puffed-up pride is alternately thrilling and galling for someone from a country where self-flagellation is, after rugby, our favourite sport.

Best ever games, best ever parties, best ever medal count, best ever ceremonies, best ever weather and what’s more, best ever Para-Olympics, the latter being so damn fine that Ocker six-year-olds are now asking Santa for a wheelchair for Christmas so they can play wheelchair basketball. One can hardly wait to see what’s on Santa’s wish list after the 2002 Gay Games.

But what truly amazes people up and down the country is that they were able to transport 400,000 people a day to and from the Olympic site without a hitch. It was easier to get to work then than it is now, marvel Sydney-siders. How did we do it? Easy. A lot of locals left town. And as far as I could tell, they were all skiing in New Zealand.

On chairlifts from Mt Hutt to the Remarkables I sat next to refugees from Cairns, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, relieved to escape the hype. But bless them, they’d packed their lucky country dispositions. Suddenly New Zealand was the best ever ski destination with the best ever scenery. “A great little country” they raved which kind of made me feel like we were a nation of para-Olympians ourselves, brave wee battlers doing well “all things considered”, but mostly made me feel like I was sitting on a gold mine. So I thought it was time to share my riches; hence the following billet-doux on New Zealand skifields.

Never mind that the ski season has just closed - in a good year it runs from early June to October. This year was the “best ever season” for well, um, years; anyway it’s bound to be again in 2001. Trust me on this.

Remarkably, for someone who still puts learner on the rental equipment form, I have skied in fields in other lands. Actually, only Canada, but I do know there are differences between our fields and those in foreign parts. For a start we’re treeless, sometimes prone to whiteouts, without accommodation on the mountains and the snow is wetter. And I’m not being disloyal. That’s just the way it is.

And although the fields are not large, they’re fabulously un-crowded and the scenery is spectacular. This year the late spring skiing conditions were unrivalled - lots of soft powdery snow, deep-sea blue skies and sunshine.

Now here’s the disloyal part. Stick to the South Island. The North Island has a lot of weather, if you know what I mean, and although it sounds cool to say you’ve skied on a volcano (Ruapehu), chances are you may not get to say it anyway. Besides which, there are more fields and more reliable conditions down south.

As far as I’m concerned there’s no going past Queenstown as a ski destination. Some would accuse it of being too commercial, but that just means it actually has things you might need, like restaurants and ski clothing and hire shops. It’s also got a couple of good galleries, no graffiti, nice gardens and a spectacular lake which is hugged by saw-tooth mountains with a boat ride on one of the last steamships in the world, the TS Earnslaw.

Better than that, Queenstown is the focal point of two major skifields (the Remarkables and Coronet Peak) and isn’t far from several others. Most people come here on a ski package that includes the bus ride up to the main fields with an added cost, if you want to go further.

For me, there are two great moments in skiing. The bus ride up the mountain and the bus ride down the mountain. I love seeing who’s wearing what, wondering how much peroxide Japanese hair can stand, and what’s the go for snow boarders this season.

Actually snow boarders have done us all a favour down here. First, and most importantly, by finally learning how to do it. Out-of-control snow surfers were thankfully rare this year. Second, by dressing down. Their shabby-chic has infiltrated what threatened to be a dangerously pretentious ski look so that suddenly skiers look like the sort of people you wouldn’t be embarrassed to know. Third, they’re great to watch. They’ve made snow fun, turned the mountains into a theme park of nutty thrills where idiocy as well as style are what counts. Thanks to them, other dopey things are allowed on the precious mountains, like tubing at the Remarkables this year.

Serious snow people go to nearby Treble Cone, which has more ski-able terrain than any other ski or snowboard in the South Island, while beginners and intermediate skiers prefer the Remarkables and Cardrona Alpine Resort (an hour from Queenstown).

Those with more time and good at origami can hire a camper van and tour lesser-known skifields. You have to be fairly anally retentive to make a camper van work and you have to be able to fit chains (don’t leave the hire company until they’ve taught you), but discovering back roads and the dozen or more B-list ski fields is part of the pleasure. That and being rescued in a snowdrift without chains by local farmers. “Thought you were Japanese,” said one, amused at finding me in a ditch.

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