| DOING SEASONS KIWI STYLEE | 8 April 2003 |
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There three main towns where workers base themselves are Queenstown & Wanaka on the South Island & Ohakune on the North.
Both the Remarks and Coronet Peak are owned by nzski.com which means a cheap pass is available which covers both mountains. They are also both only a short 30 min drive from the city centre. Queenstown itself is an awesome town with good clubs
and enough adrenaline sports to keep you busy till Christmas. It
is also backpacker city central meaning there's a constant turn
over of fresh faces in town and slightly less of a sense of season
worker community.
Treble Cone and Cardrona are also very different. Treble Cone is steep, rarely gets busy and is fantastic for freeriding. Cardrona has one of the best freestyle parks in
the Southern Hemisphere: 4 half pipes, table tops, big airs, rails,
rails, rails... However the mountain offers little in the way of
freeriding and during holiday periods it's not unusual to queue
for lifts for up to 30 minutes.
It's not uncommon for riders doing seasons on the South Island to uproot when the Southern ski fields close in October up to Ruapehu for some reliably good spring riding. This year the fields at Turoa and Whakapapa were open up until New Year - 2 and a half months longer than the season down south. An extra bonus is that at that time of the year the weather is more reliable. Get your endless winter... The attitude to riding here is also quite different to Europe. The scene is dominated by young boarders rather than middle class skiers. Freestyle is more significant and boarder/skier rivalry is close to non-existant. Parks are better maintained, making them safer and less intimidating. It's also refreshing to do a season in an everyday functioning town making the inevitable mid-season blues and resort claustrophobia a lot easier to escape from. So no more hesitation, get
sorted now while Early Bird passes are still going cheap and enjoy
the Report by Zoe Watson, Resort
Reporter, Wanaka,
NZ For more comprehensive info on New Zealand check out our recently revamped NZ section Mail
this page to a friend | |
I
decided to do a season in NZ purely because I was having the time
of my life riding and didn't want to stop. I would recommend for
anyone considering doing the same to grab the opportunity with both
hands. Winter over here goes off!!
Queenstown
Accomodation
is still hard to find, although a bit cheaper than Queenstown. A
lot of season workers end up staying in backpackers, working out
only a little more expensive and a perfect way of meeting heaps
of people to ride with. Unfortunately the two mountains accessible
form Wanaka, Treble Cone and Cardrona are owned separately - so
buying passes for both can work out quite expensive. 
When
the conditions are right the mountain really goes off. Because the
mountain is a volcano there are countless lava gullies acting as
natural half pipes and providing huge drop offs. There's also excellent
freeriding - the hike to the summit of the volcano provided one
of the best freshies runs I've done anywhere.
