You know, for those of us who are diehard skiers, skiing in the months of June to September is an absolute dream come true. And New Zealand is one of the couple places where you can make that happen. However, it is a very different experience if you’re used to skiing in Japan. Here are some major differences that you ought to know about before you go. We’ll be sharing the biggest and most glaring differences we noticed while skiing in New Zealand for the first time.
Snow
Now look, they call them snowsports for a reason. As every ski trip is centered around the snow, we’ll start there. The snow in New Zealand is significantly different from what you’ll find in Japan, particularly in the western half. Both the quality and quantity of snowfall in New Zealand are comparatively low and poor, respectively, to their counterparts in Japan. Most skiers will love the powder in Japan which in New Zealand, you only find a couple of days a season in the year. Most Kiwi ski fields end their measurements somewhere around the hundred-inch range. However, that comes with an asterisk, which we’ll come back to in a second.
As far as the quality side of things goes, it is much rarer to get that super light, dry snow in New Zealand. It does happen, but as a whole, it is much more common to get wet, heavy slog synonymous with the East Coast and Lake Tahoe. So if you’re used to skiing in Hokkaido, it will be a very different experience, especially for those who venture off-piste consistently.
Now, the asterisk previously mentioned about seasonal snowfall totals is due to New Zealand’s ski season being much shorter than the northern hemisphere. This gives you a full five months of skiing. In New Zealand, most major fields open in mid-June, although some are a week or two later. They stay open until late September or early October. In contrast, in Japan, resorts can open as early as early December and stay open as late as early May. Thus, for those snowfall numbers mentioned earlier, consider that the North hemisphere winter number may stretch from October to May, the better part of 8 months, while the Kiwi measurements are only taken from the beginning of June to the end of September, which is only half as long.
Resorts
Probably the most glaring difference, even more so than snowfall, is the size of the ski areas. New Zealand ski fields are significantly smaller than Japanese or northern hemisphere resorts with most only offering a couple dozen pistes and three to five main lifts. So unlike in Japan, where you can spend a week and not get through all of Hirafu or Hakuba if you’re an experienced skier, you will easily be able to explore the entirety of a Kiwi field in a day or two. So don’t book a super long time at any one ski field if you’re anything like us and will get bored from skiing the same 10 runs for a week. The only way to get more runs in New Zealand was to exit the resorts and find more terrain off-piste.
Additionally, the scenery at New Zealand ski fields is very different. The treeline is around 5000 feet in New Zealand, and almost every ski field is entirely above the treeline. Thus, if you’re used to tree-cut runs, prepare for a shock. Due to this high location relative to the mountains, fog and dense clouds are much more common occurrences in New Zealand, meaning your chances of a bluebird day are lower than in Japan. This will render those all the more valuable. The upside of the lack of trees is that every ski field has incredible, panoramic views that can give certain Alps destinations a run for their money. For someone used to the views of Japan, it will be a very different experience. In our opinion, you will get much more beautiful views in New Zealand.
Resorts here have nice groomed, wide runs while everything else is designated off-piste. Typically, off-piste is not closed due to conditions, and it is actually up to the skier to judge whether or not the off-piste is skiable. Be very careful, and if you don’t see anyone else going off-piste, that may be a clue. A lot of diehard skiers don’t realize that New Zealand has some serious chutes and couloirs if you know where to look. So contrary to the common conception, while Kiwi skiing is generally more catered to the lower-level skiers, there is still plenty to entertain more advanced guests. Another common misconception is that New Zealand ski fields are much more mellower than Japan resorts. While they may be somewhat milder, there is still a plethora of steep, difficult terrain in almost all of the fields. As far as grooming goes, something that is different is that there are no grooming reports at most major ski fields in New Zealand. So instead of being able to figure out what’s groomed and what’s not ahead of time, you’ll just have to go up on the mountain and find out.
Green trails in New Zealand typically tend to be limited to just the bunny hill and one or two pistes on the mountain. Given the demographic differences, we’ll discuss this later. Greens are typically the most crowded runs and areas at the fields. Blues are being groomed but a bit steeper than greens. New Zealand also uses the red designation for trail difficulty. Red difficulty falls in between blue and black and is used differently by each ski field. Some use red exclusively to demarcate off-piste areas. Some use red as groomers that are too steep to be blue. And some do a combination of the two. Do check with online information of resorts that we recommend in New Zealand. Terrain parks in New Zealand tend to be similar to Japan, relative to the snowfall and size of the fields, they do a really good job at a lot of the fields, especially in Cadrona. One of the other major deciding factors in choosing a ski destination is crowds. As a whole, New Zealand is generally better. However, there are some nuances to this.
The lift queues in New Zealand are shorter than at comparable lifts in Japan but you see much longer queues on weekends and holidays, except for Cardrona which is always super busy on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for some reason. Another thing to consider is that the layout of most Kiwi fields puts a lot of people on certain runs, so if you know where to go, it’s not an issue, but some pistes can feel much more crowded than your normal Japanese ski run. The underlying cause of this is that generally, each lift has one main groomer with a bunch of other groomed and off-piste offshoots, which causes that main groomer to be busiest.
Parking
Parking at all of the ski fields is free for now but they have relatively limited capacity. Additionally, access roads to the ski fields are extremely treacherous in comparison to the nice roads of Japan. So given those two things, there is a high emphasis placed on public transport, specifically buses. Unfortunately, the buses may not be free. Unlike in Japan, where you can just get on a bus at any time, you will need to reserve a seat on a bus at a certain time. So it doesn’t leave as much room for spontaneity. Be sure to plan ahead because if you don’t get a bus ticket and don’t make it to the mountain early, you might get turned back. As far as proximity to major towns goes, the towns are further than most resorts in Japan. You will be either driving or getting driven almost everywhere in New Zealand, so beware that public transport isn’t well planned unlike in Japan. As far as airports go, however, most major ski fields are close enough to a major airport, with Queenstown servicing the Southern Lakes, Christchurch servicing Canterbury with Auckland servicing Ruapehu.
Infrastructure
Something else that can factor into planning a ski vacation is infrastructure. This means a couple of things. First of all, you’ve got lift infrastructure, and another factor is on-mountain infrastructure. As far as lift infrastructure goes, it is two totally different tales depending on the size of the ski field. The major ski fields, those being Coronet, Remarks, Cardrona, Treble Cone, Hutt, Whakapapa, and Turoa have well-developed lift fleets, full of modern detachable. There are lots of four-person and six-person high-speed chairlifts, which move big queues quickly, and have short ride times, making it easy to load and unload. However, that is not the case at the small ski fields, most of which only feature one old, fixed-grip chairlift that is a slow ride and doesn’t have a high capacity. It can be a pain to load and unload. In addition to the older chairlifts, T-Bars, rope tows, and various other old surface lifts are quite common at some of the less-advertised destinations, so you’ll want to know how to use those lifts. At certain club fields, they have relatively unique handle tows that you may want to ask the ski patrol for help learning how to use. On the facilities side, if you’re used to North America, you will be quite shocked in New Zealand.
Rather than large, extravagant base villages with dozens of shops, restaurants, and lodging options, ski fields have their car parks, a ski patrol, a medical clinic, a rental shop, a small gift shop, a cafe, tickets, an information booth, lockers, restrooms, and a large cafeteria. Most of the facilities above are small and reflect the country’s desire to prevent overdevelopment and preservation of nature.
As facilities are only limited, the cafeterias can be extremely crowded during peak season. Some fields have started to crack down on unattended items to prevent reservations of seats in the cafe. Because of the lack of a base village, the on-mountain après scenes are minimal, if not non-existent. Lots of resorts do have mid-mountain bars but they close relatively early in the season.
Lifts
There are two major differences in New Zealand when it comes to using lifts. First off, there is much less queue management in New Zealand especially for chairlifts. Not that they do not exist but on most busy days at most fields, there will be someone managing the queue and filling the chairs. However, they are quite assertive, which can be jarring, so just be prepared for that. But otherwise, in the 90% of the time that there’s no one managing the queue, it’s like Europe. Just keep moving forward and stand your ground, but don’t push. Most lifts have singles lines, but not all of them, so keep a good eye out.
Another major policy in New Zealand is the policy about safety bars. You will see this sign: “Bar down by Tower 1.” You don’t get a choice, sometimes there’s no warning. The bar is coming down. Period. If you don’t put it down quickly enough, a liftie will yell at you, if you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky, that means you didn’t put down the bar on one of the lifts that has an enforcement camera mounted on Tower 1. So yeah, it’s taken seriously. If it’s gonna bother you that much, go to a club field without chairlifts.
Demographic
There is a large difference in demographics in New Zealand. It seems like, for the most part, the vast majority of people at the ski fields are beginners or intermediates. The beginner population is proportionally much higher than you’ll see at most North American resorts. As a result of this, you’ll discover that the green runs, especially the true bunny hill learners area, tend to be the most crowded run at the ski field. And, to go along with that, the learners’ areas typically have some of the longest queues at the field. The two outliers that I am aware of are Treble Cone, due to its reputation as an advanced mountain, and Mount Hutt, due to their installation of an eight-person detachable as their beginner lift. This lower-level percentage lends itself to the fact that there are way more families with little kids learning to ski in New Zealand, so you’ll see designated snow play and sledding areas for families at some fields.
Rentals
We would highly, highly recommend getting rentals from a local ski shop in whichever town you’re staying in, to avoid those massive crowds at the ski resort’s rental shop. Something else interesting I noticed about the general population skiing in New Zealand was that there didn’t seem to be many in-between skiers, those being the advanced-intermediate skiers.
It was pretty much exclusively experts and lower-level skiers. This creates an interesting dynamic on the main runs, as you’ll get some people going slow and taking space and time while experts are weaving through. However, unlike in North America, people seem to be much more space-conscious and cautious around those who are going slower and taking up more room.
Price
Alright, and now for the final major difference: the price. Single-day lift tickets typically come up somewhere in the range of $169NZD, or maybe just a bit more than that. Considering the size of the fields, it may seem cheap but the prices are cheaper in Japan and if you include lodging, the price goes up from there. With airline fares being accounted for, I would make the argument that skiing in New Zealand is definitely more expensive than your average resort.
If you have an Ikon Pass, you can go into a ticket office at any of these mountains and get a MyPass with 7 days of access you can use at Coronet Peak, The Remarkables, and/or Mount Hutt.
Summary
As a whole, the country of New Zealand felt so much friendlier than America or Canada. The nightlife wasn’t at the same level as in North America, but if you’ve never experienced Wednesday night skiing at Coronet, you’re missing out on a valuable memory. Being able to see the ocean from Mt Hutt is a memory we’ll never relinquish. There is something absolutely magical about New Zealand that you just have to ski to believe. And with that horrible joke, that wraps up the major differences between skiing in the Northern Hemisphere and skiing in New Zealand.
