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Rich took the plunge and headed to the Southern Hemisphere for a
season. He doesn't mince his words in his first update from Queenstown...
Snow? What snow?
The season is underway in Queenstown, but only just. The two ski
fields, Coronet Peak and The Remarkables, opened their lifts at
the end of June but snow has been mighty scarce. It seems most days
of the week a ‘thirty year storm’ is promised, but so far the closest
New Zealand has had to that managed to wholly miss Queenstown. Mt
Hutt, in Methven, had 50cm of snow in one night and managed to live
up to its nickname of Mt Shutt and managed to close - too much snow
on this occasion. The same storm stranded 350
people on Mt Ruapehu on the North Island, whilst we merely looked
longingly at the skies.
 Getting
around
I had always wondered why skiing here was done at ‘ski fields’ rather
than ‘ski resorts’. Now I know. There is no falling out of bed and
onto the slopes behaviour - Coronet Peak is about 25 minutes’ drive
away and the Remarks 45 minutes. With the ski shuttle boldly attempting
to extract NZ$25, just under £10, for a return ticket getting to
the mountain can be a mission it itself. When you haven’t got a
car the done thing here is to hitch it.
Take what you can get
On the premise that “it’s so easy, you only have to thumb for about
5 minutes and you always get picked up” after about 45 minutes in
the freezing cold I was beginning to doubt this judgement. The bloke
that eventually picked us up was called Will and quickly turned
out to be thoroughly mental. I assumed, being new to the hitchhike
game, that we would get picked up in a mini-van by some aussie snowboarders
who were out here living the dream and would be like “hop in dude.”
Will, on the other hand, was about 25, from Auckland,
‘just had some hours to kill’, had no idea where we were going,
had never driven on snow before and never been skiing or anything.
He did, however, have ‘I need a miracle’ playing on Juice Booster
setting 4 of 5 for the majority of the journey. His line of work
was, he describes, “just something to do with entertainment.” I
absolutely cacked it, but he got us there just about and for free,
so I can’t complain too much.
 The
Queenstown experience
Queenstown itself is a hard place to describe. The surroundings
are undoubtedly stunning, but its story is reminiscent of countless
such places. It is in essence a large holiday park, with hotels
scattered to take advantage of every view on offer. At the town’s
nightspots you will mostly come across either Australians or Brits
– Kiwis themselves seem conspicuously absent.
The experience here is not typical of New Zealand,
as a town utterly built on tourism. The evening entertainment itself
comes on three main levels. For the Kiwi Experience and Magic Bus
types, hoards of British travellers pile into The World Bar and
Red Rock. This is where you will see ‘Skool Discos’ an so on, but
they seem to have a good time though.
For those who are here a little longer there is
the fantastic restaurant bar Winnies. The roof which opens periodically
to reveal the stars and a refreshing breeze can only be a good thing.
Frasers and Surreal are also popular. The final drinking spots are
on Cow Lane, a narrow street where there are three or four tiny
little bars which open until about 6am to finish the night off.
You might even meet a few locals, though sightings are rare.
Get sorted before you head on over
If you are considering doing a season on Queenstown you would benefit
from taking this advice. You will find a million and one British
20-somethings out here for the season, looking for work and accommodation.
You benefit a great deal from arranging things before you come –
applications to NZSKI close at the end of March and need a visa
to be considered, and accommodation exists but is very difficult
to come by. When you have your Subaru, your pad, your kit, your
job and your season pass you can write home and tell your people
that you’re living the dream – there are a lot of people having
a go but not many manage it.
Report by Rich Brown, Resort
Reporter, Queenstown,
NZ
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