NZ Trip

After thinking about it last year and basically missing out I got in early and have booked and paid for a pretty damn cheap package for me and a mate.

We got flights to Cchurch, 8 days car hire, 7 nights accom in Qtown and 5 days multi mountain pass.  We’re leaving on the 1st September and get in about 3pm that arvo.  Will give us time to flog down to Qtown, get to bed at a reasonable hour all ready to go the next morning.

Never having been to NZ before I’m looking at The Remarkables, Coronet Peak, Cadrona and Treble Cone if we’re up for a drive.  I’m fairly decent at boarding, my mate is still novice but goes alright down most of the blue stuff I took him down at Mt Buller as well as taking on the boardercross and enjoying it.  I basically have no interest in rails but do enjoy the hits in parks and any natural ones as well.  From what I can gather the Remarkables might be best suited for what we’re after, any comments?

We have 5 days which will take us through to the 6th, I am kinda flashing on bailing on a couple of nights accom in Qtown and maybe heading back up towards Methven for Mt Hutt or maybe one of the Craigieburn club fields.  If we got up there on the night of the 6th we could do all day on the 7th and a half day on the 8th before our flight out at 3:40pm.  If we didn’t do that would it be worth just doing another day down near Qtown and spend the last day in the car driving?

Any of the pros and cons and experiences from guys who have been would be appreciated, thanks guys.

I’m not too familiar with the Queenstown resorts as I stayed in Wanaka when I was in New Zealand. However I can highly recommend Treble Cone if you are up for the drive. I literally stayed in Wanaka to be closer to Treble Cone. TC has some of the best freeriding terrain out of all the mountain resorts in New Zealand.

Enn Zed should be able to give you some good advice. He knows the New Zealand mountains better than anyone I know.

Alrighty!

You’re on the money with most things, and have made a pretty good choice by staying in Qtown. One question - what exactly does the multi-mountain pass cover? ANY mountain in the area or just nzksi.com mountains (Remarks & Coro)? The drive from CHCH to QT is about 5ish hours and has some amazing scenery. Roads are nice and open and it’s a good drive.

Remarks is super fun. Some great freeride terrain, even better if you want to hike a little bit (I’m talking 10 mins). Their park guys are really switched on and know how to build a SAFE park, which is the big thing I look for with my old knees! Plus you have the Stash, with some fun wallrides and log jibs, definitely worth a few runs through.

Don’t write off Coronet though - it can be billed as a bit of punters mountain but that’s only because it’s got a paved road which is much more convenient for the gapers! With a creative eye, Coro’s has some amazing terrain. If you’re into natural hits, they are alllll over the place. The main run (M1) has about 20-25 hits ranging in size from 5 feet to 30 feet, as long as you know where to look. Also bear in mind that Coro’s will probably give you longer runs too. Remarks can be a bit short, but if you’re there during the week that’s cool because you’ll still get plenty of laps in.

QT is a good base of operations, wake up each day with an open mind and let the weather/snow conditions decide where you want to ride. Cardies is rad too, wider than Coro’s with plenty of room and your mate might enjoy it for a day as the open terrain really lends itself to building confidence in riding fast and hammering turns. Their park is good too. Not as steep or as technical as Remarks, but it’s a fun time.

Treble Cone is epic on a pow day, but can be absolute shit on a below-average day. It is an incredible mountain with amazing terrain, but if your fitness isn’t up to scratch and the snow is chopped/heavy/icy, prepare to get worked. Not trying to put you off, as on a good day it’s amazing and you can find some epic runs most of the time. (Rider26 and I had a 50cm pow day there). I’m just giving you the truth so you have all the info with which to choose how you spend your holiday time.

Thought I’d throw the comments on your Canterbury idea in a different thread.

Personally, I’m not a fan of Mt. Hutt. It has some great terrain, but the facilities and road are sub-par and if you’re there on a weekend it’s crowded. I know, I know, some people are stoked on a ghetto cafeteria and a gnarly road, but if you’re taking it easy for a day you want a decent place to sit and have a beer. Most of the gravel roads are pretty fun to drive, but Hutt and TC just never seem to be that well maintained and that sucks when you’re in a shitty rental car.

If the snow is great up there, the clubbies will be much better. Hutt has some nice biiiig steep faces to rip turns down, but I’m more about tighter more technical terrain with a few drops etc along the way.

Thing to bear in mind about the club fields though - have you ridden rope tows/t-bars before? If you have, a nutcracker is a shitload harder than that. Will your mate pick it up quickly? The best way to ruin a days snowboarding is to be stuck at the bottom of a ropetow, exhausted and fighting the rope, while your mates come down trying to hide their powder grins. They’re not impossible to learn, and you can pick it up in an hour if you’re a decent rider, but it’s a big factor on a visit to the club fields if you’re trying to maximise fun and shred time.

That said, the club fields have some of the best terrain in NZ with the least number of people. They’re all pretty much ungroomed though, so if things are icy/heavy, prepare for tired legs

Been thinking more about your last day - 3:40 flight means a 1:40 check-in, right? I’d budget 1.5 to 2 hours from the Hutt carpark to the airport, so you’d have to leave early. One other option is to ride Ohau on your last full day (2.5 hrs from QT) and then drive to Methven from there. You could then get a morning at Hutt or Porter Heights if you wanted and still make the flight. Ohau is one of my favourite little resorts with some great terrain and endless hiking opportunities. The view is absolutely stunning on a clear day, too.

Hope some of that helps your decision making, and feel free to ask about anything else.

Cheers,

Andy

Enn Zed, awesome info mate thanks a lot for that.  Been doing a heap of reading about the mountains and what might suit the best for the trip.  To be honest the easiest to navigate and best info I have found on the powderhounds site, made it easier to compare the different pros and cons of each.  They also had a fair description of a nutcracker, sounds like they could be a little painful.

The remarks seems pretty good other than how short the runs are, the longest one is only 1.5kms which seems pretty short.  Im kinda thinking that Cardrona might the furthest we get unless it’s apparent that there is going to be a sh1tload of fresh snow then maybe a run to Treble Cone otherwise we will just divide our time between remarks and cardrona but do some night boarding at Coro’s maybe.

Apparently these are the joints our passes are good for, don’t ask me how it works but anyways.

Major Ski Resorts:
• Cardrona • Treble Cone • Coronet Peaks
• The Remarkables • Mt Hutt • Snow Park • Snow Farm
Smaller Ski Resorts:
• Ohau • Porters • Mt Dobson • Round Hill • Broken
River • Mt Cheeseman • Mt Lyford • Mt Olympus
• Temple Basin • Hanmer Springs • Craigieburn

If we do our little jaunt back up towrds the club fields by the sounds of things it would be best to avoid the nutcracker only joints which leaves us with Porters, Mt Dobson, Mt Hutt I think.  Anything in that list above which is a must do?  How far is snow park and is that worth a visit?

Just some quick comments which hopefully might help a bit. I did a similar thing last year, 7 days car hire, 7 nights accom, 4 day pass at all those mountains. We arrived in Christchurch at a similar time and the drive was mainly at night (bout 7 hours). Arrived around midnight, which was epic considering we got up around 3am to get to Sydney earlier that day. So Anyway after 5 days of boarding you may want a bit of a break. Taking on Mt Hut etc may be a bit much, especially considering all the driving. I know I would prob be wrecked but if you can manage it, sweet.

Regarding the mountains, I did Coronet, Remarks and Cardrona. All fun but faves were Coronet and Cardrona. Remarks’ park looked cool (wasnt game to try it, mainly rails etc) but the mountain is terrible if you want long blue runs. To me, the other two mtns had much more variety and better runs. The natural bowls were cool at Coronet. Although I’m prob pretty biased to Cardrona cause we had awesome pow that day.