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New Zealand’s Southern Alps
offers a few very good boarding and skiing
opportunities with 5 hundred kilometers of ranges of
mountains separating the South Island from south to
north similar to a spine.
Most of the commercial-grade ski
fields are located in the tourist-resort town of
Queenstown which is situated on Lake Wakatipu’s
shores and is more suitable to the Swiss Alps than
antipodal lands.
Within driving range of Queenstown are 4 commercial
fields. Coronet Peak and the Remarkables are
mutually in the New Zealand Ski group of resorts
with Mt Hutt in the South Island’s northern side
near the Christchurch region in Canterbury. |
Coronet Peak is over two hundred acres of ski-able area and
is about twenty five minutes from the city. It is a very
popular spot for the locals, so anticipate crowds in the
early morning just before everybody goes to work.
It has the lowest elevation at over a thousand meters so
snowfall is not as abundant as everywhere else, but a
snowmaking system worth millions dollars equipped with over
two hundred guns guarantees snow throughout the entire
season. Recently, management invested twenty million in the
main lodge to produce a more efficient experience of service
with bigger dining facilities, conference halls, and a deck
which is heated.
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If you are able to survive the precariously winding
slip road to the 220 hectares of The Remarkables,
you will be paid back with striking alpine scenes
and an offbeat ski field that is home to The Stash
of Burton, a natural piece of land run with eco
obstructions.
The passage here is steep among beginner,
intermediate, and advanced skiers, and campaigns are
more scant, but the road home allows you to unfold
at 1.5 kilometers.
Cardrona lies between Wanaka and Queenstown in the
Crown Ranges.
The FIS World Cup for snowboarding is hosted here
and it has first class catering services with juice
bar, sushi bar, cafeteria, and pizza bar. |
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The day care facilities and ski schools are the best in the
nation and the resort is preferred by snowboarders for its
3-terrain parks. Cardrona is made up of over three hundred
hectares of land and is just one of the few ski resorts in
New Zealand where staying on the mountain is allowed.
Opposite Cardrona is Snow Park is and it is a worldwide
recognized terrain resort park with a permanent super pipe,
quarter pipe, triple jump line, and 40 jumps and rails.
There are facilities for novices, accommodation and
restaurant village, and a bar on-mountain.
The South Island’s Canterbury Region is situated around
Christchurch City. Privately run Kiwi club fields are open
to the public. Do not expect world class service though.
What they normally offer to their visitors are a chores
board, a bunk bed, and really cheap lift passes with
admittance to a few magnificent big mountain terrains.
Glen Plake, Seth Morrison, and their comrades ski at
Craigieburn’s steep and deep on a regular basis. Temple
Basin, Broken River, Cheeseman, and Porters, all deserve a
look.
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