Posts tagged skiing
Too many slopes to choose from…
There are quite a few places where you can go skiing around New Zealand, especially in the middle of winter. The main places that people decide upon are in Queenstown and Wanaka. Queenstown, of course, being the adrenaline capital of the world, is where most people roll on down to get a good ski or snowboard, meaning that it can get a bit crowded. This is why I decided to get up on the slopes in Wanaka.
Treble Cone is about a half hour bus ride away from the centre of town, and all together, including the transfer, the ski pass and the gear, it will cost you around NZ$135 for a full day of skiing here. I, needless to say, passed out on the bus ride (we had had a few drinks the night before and I was surviving, once again, on about 3 hours sleep), and was woken up 30 minutes later as the bus jolted to stop. The scenery in front of me was mental.
We had climbed over the clouds and was now looking down on them. The sheet of cloud looked like an extension of the pure white snow that was lying on the mountain side. It was unreal.
After taking a few snaps, we got our ski passes (which you buy at the bottom of the first lift. There are no gondolas here, it’s straight onto the snow off the bus) and clicked our skis on.
Like I said, Queenstown can get a bit crowded, but here, we were able to run up and down the slopes non stop, with not even a hint of a queue at any point. The amount of runs at Treble Cone is more than enough to keep you happy few a few days. People have told me that if you’re staying around for a week or so, then maybe head down to Queenstown, simply because the mountains are bigger and you have more choice, but for the day, Treble Cone is “Sweet As, Bru”.
By the end of the day, if you’ve been skiing a few times, I would recommend going as high a you can in the ski lifts and then taking the hike up to the highest mount on these mountains. The views are out of this world, and the off piste skiing back down to the main slopes is a lot of fun. What you should know about the slopes in NZ is that the grading system is slightly different. The are no Reds, it’s Green, Blue then Black, and the Blue runs can go from nice and easy to steep moguls pretty quickly! What’s really nice about these runs though, is that a lot of them are just guides, and you can make up a lot of it as you go along. Pretty much all of the Blacks are just off piste, and especially at Treble Cone where there aren’t many people are fairly uncarved and deserted. Again, a lot of fun!
Only wiped out a coupled of times (once pretty spectacularly underneath the ski lift) and still only have the one hole in my teeth. A freaking good day!
Hello NZ…
My last few days in Oz were a mash of busses and blurry nights. Having done so much up the East Coast, there was not much time for sitting back and relaxing. Magnetic Island sits just off the coast from Townsville, and if you find yourself in the right place I am told that you are in for a good time, but I ended up on the other side of the island, where there is not much to do. My advice, stay at Base, it’s more of a bar and club than a place to stay!
After this, we headed to the Johnstone River Crocodile Park, which you can get at discounted prices through the Oz Experience. It’s a brilliant few hours! The park is actually a farm, where they farm crocodiles for meat. We were told it’s very similar to farming cows, except that these cows can kill you if they wanted to. The guides feed them chickens with no regard for their own life, and it gets a little dodgy when they tell you that one of the crocs they are feeding tends to go mental every now and again and kills the females. But it’s still a great experience!
After shooting up the remainder of the coast and spending one night in Cairns (which is not enough to experience both the heat and the things to do there. Again I am told that it is amazing place to stay for a few days. Maybe next time) it was time to get to the adrenaline capital of the world; New Zealand.
On landing, once again, I was moving from hot to cold. But this time I was prepared with hoodies and coats. I didn’t get into the hostel until 12.30 am and I had only had an hours sleep in Cairns (the night life is fantastic!) so it was straight to bed.
Christchurch is one of the biggest cities in New Zealand, and yet it is still smaller than most of the places I have visited over the past few months. It is more of a stop over point as you cruise through the South Island, with not much around it in the way of the backpacker lifestyle.
What has to be noted about NZ is that there is a lot of nothing in between towns, but that makes way for the most breathtaking views I have seen so far. One minute you will be looking over massive green fields surrounded by enormous ferns, and the next you are driving through a canyon steeped in mountains. It is incredible!
The next couple of weeks is to be riddled with skiing, bungee jumping, sky diving, the list goes on. It’s going be a heart pumping few weeks!
Matt M
STA UK WTI 2010