The Biggest Differences about Skiing in New Zealand

You know, for those of us who are diehard skiers, going in the summer is an absolute dream come true, and New Zealand is one of the couple places where you can make that happen during the North American, European, and Japanese summer. However, it is a very different experience, and if you're used to skiing in North America, there are some major differences that you ought to know about before you go. As such, today we'll be sharing the biggest and most glaring differences we noticed while skiing in New Zealand for the first time. So with that, let's talk about skiing in New Now look, they call them snow sports for a reason, as every ski trip is centered around the snow. So we'll start there, as the snow in New Zealand is significantly different from what you'll find in North America, 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 North America. While lots of North American ski resorts feature seasonal snow totals well into the 2 or 300 inch range, most Kiwi ski fields end their measurements somewhere around the 100 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 go, 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 the wet, heavy slog synonymous with the east coast and Lake Tahoe. So if you're used to skiing in the Rockies, 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 that of much of North America. In North America, resorts can open as early as mid-October and stay open as late in early June in exceptional circumstances. A more typical season, mid-November to mid-April, gives you a full 5 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 sometimes early October. That yields a ski season that is just over 4 months long, which is a significant amount shorter. Thus, for those snowfall numbers mentioned earlier, consider that the North American number stretches 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. With Kiwi snowfall being slightly less than half that of North America, you can now determine that while snowstorms are less frequent down south, they're not quite as infrequent as the numbers may make it seem initially. 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 North American ski resorts, with most only offering a couple dozen pieces and 3-5 main lifts. So unlike in North America, where you can spend a week and not get through all of Vail or Park City or Palisades, 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. Additionally, the scenery at New Zealand ski fields is very different. Treeline is around 5,000 feet in New Zealand and almost every ski field is entirely above Treeline. Thus, if you're used to tree cut runs, get ready for a shock. Due to this high location relative on the mountains, fog and dense clouds are much more occurrences in New Zealand, meaning your chances of a bluebird day are lower than in North America, rendering those all the more valuable. The upside of the lack of trees, however, 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 North America, it will be a very different experience and, in our opinion, a much more beautiful one. Given this lack of trees, obviously, there is no tree skiing, which means overall terrain is very different. Skiing in New Zealand is much more akin to skiing in the Alps in that it is generally just an open area. They'll groom some nice wide strips and everything else is designated off-piste. Typically, off-piste is not closed due to conditions and it is instead 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. Something that a lot of diehard skiers don't realize is 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 mellower than North American resorts. While they may be somewhat milder, there is still a plethora of steep, difficult terrain at almost all of the fields. As far as the 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 see. If you want to know ahead of time which piece are likely groomed and which piece to avoid at some of New Zealand's premier ski fields, check out our Insider's Guide series after this. It's in the card at the top right of your screen now. Green trails in New Zealand typically tend to be limited to just the bunny hill and one or two pieces on the mountain. Given the demographic differences we'll discuss at the end of the video, greens are typically the most crowded runs and areas at the fields. Blues are pretty similar to blues in North America, generally being groomed but a bit steeper than greens. Some wind, some roll, some go straight down, and the occasional few are basically beginner off-piste. You'll notice a good number of traverses and roads designated green or blue in New Zealand, but unlike in North America, flatspots are much rarer as the Kiwi traverses seem to be better graded than certain ones in North America. 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. Once again, Insider's Guide is a valuable tool for determining that. Terrain parks in New Zealand tend to be smaller and more limited than their North American counterparts. However, we will give them credit as relative to the snowfall and size of the fields, they do a really good job at a lot of the fields. Now, 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. Generally, lift queues in New Zealand are shorter than at comparable lifts in North America. But of course, similarly, the Kiwi fields see much longer queues on weekends and holidays except for Kedrona which is always super busy on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for whatever reason. Still trying to figure that one out. Another thing to consider is that the most Kiwi fields puts a lot of people on certain runs. So if you know where to go, it's not an issue. But there are some pieces that can feel much more crowded than your normal North American ski run. The underlying cause of that 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. This is yet another topic we go over in each Mountain's Insider's Guide. Getting to the ski fields is quite a bit different in New Zealand than in North America as well. 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, wide roads of America. So given those two things, there is a high emphasis placed on public transit, specifically buses. Now, unfortunately, the buses are not free. However, when the exchange rate from the New Zealand dollar to the US dollar is factored in, it's relatively cheap. Unlike in America 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, both continents are about equal with solid mountain towns close to most major fields but big cities much further away. You will be driving or getting almost everywhere in New Zealand so beware of that. 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, and Taupo and Rotorua servicing Ruapehu. 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, Trobocone, Hutt, Ouagapapa, and Taroa all have well-developed lift fleets full of modern detachables. There are lots of 4-person and 6-person high-speed chairlifts, which move big queues quickly, have short ride times, and are 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, doesn't have a high capacity, and can be a pain to load and unload. In addition to the older chairlifts, T-bars, rogue toes, 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 toes 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 have quite the shock in New Zealand. Rather than large extravagant base villages with dozens of shops, restaurants, and lodging options, the ski fields have their car parks, a ski patrol medical clinic, a rental shop, a small gift shop, a cafe, a tickets and information booth, lockers, restrooms, and a large cafeteria. And that's it. It's just a day lodge. Additionally, there is very little on-mountain dining. Finding seating in the cafeterias can be extremely challenging, so some fields have started to crack down on unattended items, so beware of that. Because of the lack of a base village, the on-mountain apres scenes are minimal, if not non-existent. Lots of resorts do have mid-mountain bars, however, so that is an option, but almost all of them close well before the ski field closes. In this aspect, New Zealand is unlike Europe, in fact, about as far away from Europe as possible. And it's not exactly akin to North America either. Alright, let's change gears a little bit and talk lift etiquette. There are two major differences between North America and New Zealand when it comes to using the lifts, chair lifts especially. First off, there is much less queue management in New Zealand than in North America, and the alternate merge does not seem to be utilized much. That's not to say that either of those don't exist. On busy days at most fields, there will be someone managing the queue and filling the chairs, and they typically do a good job. 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. The other major thing is putting the bar down. In New Zealand, the bar goes down right after you sit down and doesn't open until you get into the top terminal, no questions asked. The policy we saw on signs was, bar down by tower one. You don't get a choice, and there's no warning. The bar is coming down, period. If you don't put it down quickly enough, a lifty 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 one. So yeah, it's taken seriously. If it's going to bother you that much, go to a club field without chair lifts. But otherwise, just put it down. It's not that hard. Something that you'll notice if you ski a lot in North America is that there is a large difference in demographic 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, tends 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 Trouble Cone, due to its reputation as an advanced mountain, and Mount Hutt, due to their installation of an 8 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 actually see designated snowplay and sledding areas for families to have fun with kids. You don't see free areas segregated from ski traffic where you're allowed to sled at ski resorts in the US, but they exist in New Zealand, which I think is awesome. Due to this large percentage of beginners, ski rentals are quite popular in New Zealand, particularly on site at the fields themselves. Thus, often the longest queues anywhere on the mountains are actually at the rental office. We would highly, highly recommend getting rentals from a local ski shop in whichever town you're staying in to avoid those massive crowds. Something else interesting I noticed about the general population skiing New Zealand was that there didn't seem to be as 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 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, so if any lessons can be learned from this video, take away just to be nice. Alright, and now for the final major difference, the price. Single day lift tickets typically come out somewhere in the range of 100 US dollars or maybe just a bit more than that. Considering the size of the fields, it makes sense, but upon initial impressions, that definitely seems cheap. It's easy to say that lodging is cheap, but for your reference, the resort we stayed at near Mount Hutt cost half as much as our upcoming steamboat trip, and was twice as nice as we anticipate the steamboat accommodation will be, so that puts it in perspective a little bit more. If it weren't for the huge airline fare, I would make the argument that skiing in New Zealand is downright economical for your average American skier. However, even these low prices can be further negated if you have an IconPass. If you have an IconPass, you can go into a ticket office at any of these mountains and get a MyPass with 7 days of access that you can use at Coronet Peak, The Remarkables, and or Mount Hutt. Before we end this video, I want to address one smaller difference that made the trip so magical for us, but might not matter as much to you guys, the vibes. 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 to the ocean from Mount 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 about wraps it up for the major differences between skiing in North America and skiing in New Zealand. Is it worth it? That's a question for each of you to ask yourself now. If you have any further questions, please leave them all down below and we'll be sure to answer all of them. If you really enjoyed the video that much that you're still here, why not go ahead and hit that subscribe button to help support this dream. Thank you all so much for watching. All my love, I'm out.