Weekend Skiiing from Wellington

FreeAnd..

Anyone have any reccomendations on where is easiest to get to for a weekend from Wellington?

Is it worth heading somewhere for a long weekend? Would it be better to fly somewhere North or South Island or to just drive up North altogether?

Any advice on places to stay or anything else related would be more than welcome...

oooomy

im interested in any answers to this one also. im in auckland instead though
i found this website http://www.mtruapehu.com/ seems to be about 4 hours no matter which city your coming from.

Have you thought about heading down to Queenstown? I spent a few weeks there this time last year and it was brilliant. The skiing itself is ok (depending on your level) but the town is great fun. You can spend as much or as little as you want on accomodation. My only gripe was that you had to get a bus to either Mt Coronet or the Remarkables.

Queenstown has its own airport so you should check that out as an option.

robinph

You need to drive to every ski field in NZ, none of them have accommodation on the slopes*. The roads to get to them vary quite a bit but there is generally a bus service from the nearest town, the nearest towns also vary quite a bit in interestingness too.

From Queenstown you can get to two different mountains easily, or three is you get up early. Coronet Peak and Remarkables are both close, Cardrona is also accessible. There is also a lot of other interesting things to do there as well like jumping off out out of things. If the weather is really bad then it generally only closes one of the hills though as they are opposite directions so that might be a safer destination as far as guaranteeing getting on the snow. Coronet Peak is better for skiers and the Remarks are better for boarders, if your a beginner it won't make much difference though.

Mt Ruapehu has the biggest ski areas though between Whakapaha and Turoa and although I only spent a day at each I think the terrain there was more fun despite not exploring it all properly. Not sure about Ohakune as a fun place to stay or not, but for a weekend it would probably be fine. You can claim to have skiied down Mount Doom** though if you go there.


*There is one small one in the South Island I think, but I forget where.
**It's actually the next mountain over, but that's minor detail.

FreeAnd..

robinph wrote: »

You need to drive to every ski field in NZ, none of them have accommodation on the slopes*. The roads to get to them vary quite a bit but there is generally a bus service from the nearest town, the nearest towns also vary quite a bit in interestingness too.

From Queenstown you can get to two different mountains easily, or three is you get up early. Coronet Peak and Remarkables are both close, Cardrona is also accessible. There is also a lot of other interesting things to do there as well like jumping off out out of things. If the weather is really bad then it generally only closes one of the hills though as they are opposite directions so that might be a safer destination as far as guaranteeing getting on the snow. Coronet Peak is better for skiers and the Remarks are better for boarders, if your a beginner it won't make much difference though.

Mt Ruapehu has the biggest ski areas though between Whakapaha and Turoa and although I only spent a day at each I think the terrain there was more fun despite not exploring it all properly. Not sure about Ohakune as a fun place to stay or not, but for a weekend it would probably be fine. You can claim to have skiied down Mount Doom** though if you go there.


*There is one small one in the South Island I think, but I forget where.
**It's actually the next mountain over, but that's minor detail.

Thanks all - yeah looks like driving up to Mt Ruapehu is probably the best option...will be end of October/November before I get to travel the country properly so would like to get in some skiiing (rather than banking on there still being snow coming into Spring) preferably without heading down to the end of the South Island...

pclancy

Usually pretty pricey to fly direct to Queenstown from Welly unless you get lucky with grabaseat. Air NZ fly direct but one way of getting there I was going to do last year grab a cheap Jetstar flight to Christchurch and then a cheap jetstar flight to Queenstown.

But driving or busing up to Taupo/Mt Ruapehu is a handy 3-4 hours so yeah its probably a lot cheaper/better to head north then south

I'd love to try skiing one day...i have the coordination of a blind man though and would spend most of it on my ass i'm