There is only one thing on everybody’s mind during the southern hemisphere winter (July – September) in Queenstown: THE SNOW.
But Queenstown offers so much more as a great escape town – this is my top 5 things to do in Queenstown, winter edition!
1. SKI/SNOWBOARD
From the Queenstown town centre, you can easily reach several of the full-serviced snowfields by car within 1-1.5hour drive. This makes planning a lot easier and the best thing to do is to check the snow condition at each field before deciding which snowfield to hit on the day.
Coronet Peak
The night ski option that Coronet Peak offers would come in handy when your flight arrives in the afternoon but you just really can’t wait to ski (most snowfields close at 4pm).
The snow here was not the best (bit slushy) when we went but it made a good warm-up run before the real thing. Since Coronet Peak is just a short 35-min drive from town centre, why not.
Tips:
- Night ski is only available on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from early July to mid September. Click [here] for night ski hours and prices.
Cardrona
Cardrona was my favourite snowfield out of the three. The snow was much better than Coronet Peak’s and the trails were more versatile and fun. Click [here] to download the trail map.
The Weston Trail
The Weston Trail was very beginner-friendly as it had patches of wide and easy slopes for turn-practising.
The Comeback Trail
Part of the Comeback Trail was marked beginner and part of it was marked intermediate, which gave me the illusion that it’s a relatively easy intermediate trail – it turned out to be a relatively difficult beginner’s trail (yes, it makes a difference!). The challenge was: it’s way too flat. Once we stopped, we lost our momentum and we got stuck! It was also be a little nerve-wrecking as the trail sits right next to an un-fenced cliff…
Caution: fog. It got foggy very rapidly in Cardrona. Mike and I each had an omg-wtf–(Q!*@#&#$ moment here. Mike almost fell off a snow cliff unknowingly because he couldn’t see where the narrow trail was leading to in the fog (but luckily he just happened to stop right before the edge while I looked on in horror!). Whereas I lost control off-piste when Mike and I were trapped in the thick fog coming down the mountain 5 minutes before closing time – there were no one else besides us and all I could see was, literally, white, and nothing else (I was so scared that I might go blind!).
Visibility dropped significantly when the fog crept on.
The Remarkable
As a beginner, I found the chairlifts at the Remarkable particularly challenging. There were only three main chairlifts here but somehow I felt the trails were more complicated to navigate and there were a lot of merging traffic of snowboarders/skiers.
My more advanced/intermediate level friends all had a blast here testing out tricks with the pipes, bumps and platforms though!
2. Queenstown Onsen/ Hot pools
The word “Onsen” means “hot spring” in Japanese. However, the onsen here at Queenstown Onsen is very different from the onsens in Japan. What they have here in each room is simply a heated wooden bucket. Even so, we really enjoyed it! After all, nothing beats a steamy hot bath after a whole day of snowboarding.The maximum capacity allowed is 5 people per pool, but the pool itself is actually quite big and we still had plenty of room to move about.
Tips:
- Book well in advance, the evening slots get booked out early.
- Click [here] for the price list. It’s possible to have the pool all by yourself (paying $46 solo compared to $35 shared between a group of four, which is not too bad).
- You would have zero view during the night as there’s no light.
3. Luge & Skyline Gondola
Mario kart!
Racing down the tracks with a group of friends was super fun.
You have to go up the gondola for the luge, and the ticket to the luge includes a return trip on the gondola. The view of Queenstown’s crown jewel – Lake Wakatipu – from the top was absolutely amazing.
So beautiful.
Tips:
- Click [here] for the price list.
- They sell postcards and stamps in their souvenir shop and there is a mailbox located right outside.
4. Sky-diving & other crazy things
If skydiving is on your must-do-before-you-die bucket list, do it in Queenstown. The reason is simple: the view. I mean, free fall is the same all over the world, but the view doesn’t get more perfect than Queenstown!
I did my first 12,000ft skydive at NZONE with 45 seconds of free fall. At NZONE, you have the option to go for the 15,000ft jump with 60 seconds of free fall if you are game (and willing to pay $100 more).
We also had a choice of buying a photo CD or a video DVD. It’s a once in a lifetime thing (for me anyway- my coach’d done 12,000 jumps!) so I got the video. The price difference was only $50 so it made sense to buy the video DVD (and just do screenshots from the video).
The base looked so professional.
This was our plane.
I never gave it much thought before, but as I got into the plane, I thought to myself: Yea, that’s right, there are no seats in here! Once we got paired up with our coach and cameraman, we made our way onto the plane by sitting between the legs of each other (the cameraman sits at the front, you in the middle, the coach at the back). It’s a pretty cool experience, I felt like a cargo!
The whole thing was finished before I knew it (I admit I was a bit absent-minded during the whole thing…), I didn’t even have the time to feel fear, not even when we got to the door! The coach already had us half way out of the door as he asked me “Are you ready”, then before I could utter anything, woof we went!!
Don’t expect any pretty photos – no matter how photogenic you are, you’d look like a frightened clown in the the white little hat and goggles.
Everyone told me the free fall is the fun part, well, it was. However, no one ever told me how much air pressure you actually face (pun intended) while you’re in free fall 12,000ft off the face of the earth! My camera man was following me with his go-pro so I tried to give the camera a big smile and to say “Hi” – but as soon as I opened my mouth, “BAHHHHH” all the wind rushed in and I couldn’t close it! Awkward.
5. Chillax by the lake
Isn’t it just nice to have a lake in the middle of your town?
HER{curio}MAJESTY – I was here. August 2012 + August 2013.