Oz/NZ 2025

There is was some fun to be had in NZ via heli even with low snow conditions. The guide who works in NZ and in Park City posted pictures mid-August.

NZ 2025

Our last day today, back to Roundhill because Mt Dobson still needed chains on most vehicles after the snowfall Friday afternoon. And so the sun sets on another great ski holiday.
www.ski.com.au www.ski.com.au
 
Skied at Hutt today. Groomers were firm (refrozen postmelt), but carveable. I got 6k vert meters. Basically skied all open runs with very little repeats.
Triple shutdown for wind at 12:30. I was asked to get off at the midstation.
Virgin Mile (ridge trail) was closed around 1pm. The other kept running until I called it a day at 3pm. I decided to skip lunch in case the hill would shutdown early as the winds were picking up.
Mt Hutt and Porters announced that they will no open tomorrow. Spoke to patrol; they mentioned that Dobson might be a good option.
South Face and Towers were closed due to firmness, but hopefully might reopen before I leave on Sept 8.
 
Weather is going to be happening around Hutt the next few days. Decided to drive and stay until Sept 1 in Queenstown. Snow in the forecast. Will be back here before leaving.
 
Patrick said:
South Face and Towers were closed due to firmness, but hopefully might reopen before I leave on Sept 8.
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As I expected, same as both my days there. How are you driving to Queenstown, via West Coast or Mt. Cook? Via West Coast, doing the Fox or Franz Josef glacier walks is worthwhile. Via Mt. Cook, I presume the Tasman Glacier skiplane I did in 1982 is still available, weather permitting.
MarzNC said:
There is was some fun to be had in NZ via heli even with low snow conditions.
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That link is to Harris Mt. Heli, with whom I skied a day in both 1997 (very weather constrained) and 2006 (outstanding). They have a very wide permit area, definitely the recommended heli operator in NZ.
 
Tony Crocker said:
Via West Coast, doing the Fox or Franz Josef glacier walks is worthwhile. Via Mt. Cook, I presume the Tasman Glacier skiplane I did in 1982 is still available, weather permitting.
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Via the West Coast is a crazy long drive from here, the only way via Mount Cook.
I drove and hike at both glacier (Fox and Franz Josef) on a closed day in 2016. I was in Wanaka.
As I lay in bed and can hear the crazy winds howling outside. Set the alarm early to check SR
As expected, almost everything is shutdown. Only places saying that they’ll open in Remarks and Coronet.j
Here are the ones I’ve checked which are ckosedd
north to south):
Lyford
Porters
Hutt
Dobson
Roundhill
Ohsu
Treble Cone
Cardrona
 
6:20an update from Qtown
TC 30cm
Cardrona 18cm
Remarks 15cm
Coronet 0cm “we pick up a dusting of snow” ???

Curious about where I left.
Hutt: 0cm, top lift on windhold.
Dobson: closed wind
Roundhill: 2cm
Porters: closed wind 5cm
Olympus : 5cm
Lyford : 0cm
 
Patrick said:
6:20an update from Qtown
TC 30cm
Cardrona 18cm
Remarks 15cm
Coronet 0cm “we pick up a dusting of snow” ???

Curious about where I left.
Hutt: 0cm, top lift on windhold.
Dobson: closed wind
Roundhill: 2cm
Porters: closed wind 5cm
Olympus : 5cm
Lyford : 0cm
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I have used the Snow New Zealand site Link to aggregate snow reports. Generally, you get decent info with a bit of drill-down.
 
Patrick said:
At CP now. They réajustes their numbers. 3cm st bottom, 15cm at top.
Remarks: 2 lifts are on windhold.
Made the good call this morning.
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I had a great day there last year with a couple of older chaps hosting a 'mountain tour'. It only went for a couple of hours but I skied with them all day. Had some nice fresh to play in. About 5 inches from memory.
 
Porters is a public ski area but lifts when I was there in 2010 were all T-bars. It's definitely worth visiting if conditions are right. In the modern era we may not love T-bars, but they are a piece of cake vs. those nutcracker rope tows.
 
Tony Crocker said:
Porters is a public ski area but lifts when I was there in 2010 were all T-bars. It's definitely worth visiting if conditions are right. In the modern era we may not love T-bars, but they are a piece of cake vs. those nutcracker rope tows.
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Porters and Dobson : I was hearing good thing from locals in Methven regarding conditions etc.
 
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If/when I go to New Zealand, I might skip the ski fields and say Porters is 'good enough' of an experience.

Probably would prioritize skiing Mount Ruapehu, the North Island's volcano, and its ski areas, Whakapapa and Tūroa.
 
ChrisC said:
Probably would prioritize skiing Mount Ruapehu, the North Island's volcano, and its ski areas, Whakapapa and Tūroa.
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Isn't ChrisC the one who expressed skepticism about isolated volcanic peaks with chronic wind, rime icing and lift shutdowns? Ruapehu is Exhibit A of all of those. Like Bachelor, I think those places are best skied in spring. But the Ruapehu areas don't get as much snow, and my understanding is that neither has opened yet this season.
ski fields
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is NZ jargon for "ski areas." The "club fields" are run by private ski clubs and use the nutcracker rope tows.

Th NZ club fields are a unique ski experience, but you need to be aware what you're getting into. Offbeat ski destinations often have severe snow reliability issues so you may have to be lucky to get the conditions many people take for granted in western North America, especially if you travel halfway around the world on a schedule fixed long in advance. See our recent trip to Uzbekistan as a good example.
 
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ChrisC said:
Probably would prioritize skiing Mount Ruapehu, the North Island's volcano, and its ski areas, Whakapapa and Tūroa.
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North and South Islands are totally different in ski areas and topography. Whakapapa and North in general is having a terrible year.
 
I ran across this 26-minute review of Oz skiing from a North American POV, posted yesterday. Virtually all of the Aussies in the comments say that it's accurate for the most part. The cadence of the narrator's voice (not sure if it's a bot or not) is brutal so following is a copy/paste of the readout from a YouTube transcript generator -- I use it often to avoid sitting through long videos. I didn't copyedit it so there may be some misspellings.


When it comes to a trip to Australia, the first thing that comes to mind might be the outback and probably some kangaroos. But what might be surprising to the outside observer is that the country actually has a sizable ski scene as well. Yes, it turns out that not only does Australia have snowy mountains that you can get down on skis or a snowboard, but it actually has some genuinely competitive terrain that makes it a class leader in a number of ways for the southern hemisphere. And in some ways, perhaps even more unique than certain popular northern hemisphere regions. So, why is Australia so overlooked for a southern hemisphere ski trip? And is the lack of visitation justified? Well, our team just had the privilege of spending the past several days visiting all of the major ski resorts in the land down under. And in this video, we'll go through the biggest differences you can expect from skiing or riding in Australia versus a trip to North America, Europe, or elsewhere.

With that all being said, let's jump right into it. Perhaps the most surprising thing you'll notice right away when skiing or riding in Australia is the trees. Unlike in the northern hemisphere, you won't see any oaks, aspens, or even pines on the ski slopes. Instead, Australian ski resorts exclusively have gum trees, which have distinctively twisty branches and much less dense leaves than at a typical resort, making for a look that seems more fitting for an exotic National Geographic video than a ski resort. When conditions are right, the Australian snow gums make for phenomenal glade terrain. They're widely spaced enough to ski through at many resorts and short enough that you can still see the scenery in front of you. However, the branches do jut out and are often very hard, so you will need to be careful to avoid them in the glades.

But despite the novelty of the gum forests, the terrain at Australia ski resorts stands out from more than just its glades. The vast majority of resorts manage to offer a respectable mix of below treeline and high alpine terrain, even when it comes to those on the smaller side. The bowls and upper mountain areas at Australia's ski resorts can be surprisingly expansive. And in a good snow year, some areas might not feel out of place at a midsized Western North American resort.

Another place where Australia stands out to the outside visitor is in its scenery. The exotic trees and wide open bowls are pretty cool in their own right, but guests will find kilometers of rolling and isolated mountain views from resort summits, panoramas that stretch over much greener valleys and lower peaks from as low as the mid mountains, and in the case of False Creek, even a stunning blue lake.

Some of Australia's ski resorts are either upside down in nature or dip into valleys on a backside, creating much more natural views down the slopes than one might see at an equivalent American or European resort. Another surprising trait of skiing in Australia is just the raw size of some of its resorts. As of 2025, the country's Perisher ski resort is the largest ski area in the entire southern hemisphere with an interconnected lift network that sprawls across multiple valleys. We independently measured the boundary to boundary footprint of Perisher in its bigger than popular North American resorts like Alta, Jackson Hole, and Sun Valley. Plus, every ski resort in the East, Midwest, and Washington State. The rest of Australia's major resorts are a notch smaller than Perisher, but they're not minuscule either when they're 100% open, and they should have enough to keep most skiers and riders busy for a few days.

This all being said, in terms of overall big mountain feel, Australia's resorts still fall short of the biggest in North America and Europe. A given resort might be large in acreage or it might have a decent vertical drop. But Australia's resorts rarely have both. And by decent vertical, we mean respectable, but not especially stand out as no resort has a rise of more than 672 m or 2200 ft. As a result, those looking for a huge variety of specifically long runs may be a bit disappointed. But one place where Australia really punches above its weight is in its terrain park scene. The country has produced multiple freestyle Olympic champions, and it shows in how much emphasis all the resorts place on park infrastructure. No matter which resort you visit, you'll find multiple parks ranging from small to extra large.

And you'll often see pros practicing on the larger features even during off- peak times. Unlike in the US, even the mountains owned by Veil Resorts have top tier features. And yes, there are quite a few of these, and we'll touch on that in a little bit. But Australia's freestyle routes don't just stop at traditional features. The country also offers a notable mogul skiing scene.

Every major resort has a dedicated freestyle mogul course, although they're sporadic in how often they're open to the public, and they're typically reserved for training by competitive teams. That said, trails with naturally formed mogul exist to a certain extent at most resorts as well. While Perisher is oddly lacking in natural mogul lines, especially for its size, the other four major resorts do punch above their weight in terms of advanced and expert bump runs. And at all five resorts, you'll in all likelihood come across at least a few high-quality mogul trails, at least provided the conditions allow.

In general, much of the terrain at Australia's ski resorts is mellow compared to the resorts in the Alps or Rockies. However, there are some legitimately challenging slopes at most of Australia's ski resorts, including steep bowls, shoots, and even a few cliffs that in the right conditions will test the balance of advanced and expert visitors. As we alluded to earlier, the harder runs at most Australian resorts remain ungroomed, which is a big contrast to Europe, but quite similar to North America. That being said, a few single black trails do tend to be groomed at some resorts. Also, like in North America, everything within the resort boundary in Australia is considered in bounds unless specifically marked closed. Unlike in Europe, where ducking off a marked piece is technically backountry and often frowned upon without avalanche equipment, this is a huge benefit and source of peace of mind for those who like skiing or riding ungroomed or glad terrain, which is great because Australia stands out in both departments for a southern hemisphere ski region when conditions allow.

But speaking of back country, Australia does indeed have somewhat of a scene, despite the fact that essentially no foreigners have heard of it. No, it's not up to the same standard as New Zealand or South America, but backcountry skiing and riding opportunities do exist in Australia. In fact, several resorts run guided backcountry tours that cut across less traveled bridges and bowls, some of which can extend for several days and turn into overnight backpacking trips.

It's also worth noting that if you weren't challenged by the inbounds terrain, the Australian backcountry also has some far more gnarly lines, including off the western faces of the snowy mountains and Victoria's Mount Feather Top. For those with avalanche training in the right gear, it is sometimes possible to find high quality backcountry lines where you ride the lift up, tuck out of bounds, and ski a ride back into the resort with no hiking required. But most people who ski ride in Australia won't be going out of bounds. And if and when you're in the resort proper, you'll probably be looking for guidance on how to navigate the ski trails.

If you're used to skiing or riding in the US or Canada, the trail rating system will feel familiar. The green circle, blue square, and black diamond symbols carry the same beginner, intermediate, and advanced meanings, while a couple of resorts use the double black diamond symbol for expert terrain as well. The style of signage is largely similar to North America's, too. But Australia's mountains generally go a bit further and add a couple of other helpful touches. For example, many resorts place tall guidance poles along popular runs to aid with navigation during low visibility days, which is really helpful in high alpine areas when storms roll through.

But in some cases, these poles go beyond that, even guiding you toward key amenities like restaurants, lifts, or base areas, which can be a welcome orientation tool to the mountain, even when visibility at the resorts are totally clear. For the most part, those familiar with skiing in the United States will find the lift infrastructure to feel pretty similar. Australian ski resorts use the same manufacturers, and you won't find any of the brands that primarily do business in Europe.However, the prevalence of platters and tea bars in Australia is notable. Surface lifts are common on exposed ridge lines where wind makes running a chairlift impractical, and mastering the platter and tea bar quickly becomes a part of the Australian ski experience if you want to cover the whole mountain.

But on the chairlifts themselves, one big difference versus parts of North America is the strictness of the safety bar rules. If you're used to riding with the bar up in the US, expect to be called out immediately if you try that here. In general, Australia's ski resorts do have some contemporary lifts, but others are slow and there's only one gondola within the region. However, Australia is also home to one of the quirkiest ski lift experiences in the world, the Ski Tube Alpine Railway at Perisher. This underground train, which is the only ski train outside of Europe, moves skiers and riders from a base terminal outside the resort up through a long tunnel into the heart of the mountain. The ski tube has a mid station at the main Perisher base before topping out at the mid-mount blue cow area, so it does genuinely function as a ski lift for those at the resort. The train cars are far from the sleek and modern trains you see in Switzerland, but the ski tube is functional, efficient, and undeniably unique.

When it comes to getting to the resorts in Australia, there are a number of key differences versus the alpine regions of North America and Europe. And the most obvious of these is the side of the road you drive on. Driving to the resorts is its own adjustment. As soon as you step into your rental car, you'll be on the left side of the road with the driver's seat on the right. The switch is probably manageable for most people, but placing the corners of the car can be hard at first. It's worth noting that in many cars, the wiper and blinker controls are reversed, too. So, don't be surprised to accidentally turn on your wipers a few times while trying to signal. We'd highly recommend getting comfortable with driving your vehicle on the other side of the road before navigating the winding mountain access roads.

Speaking of these access roads, there are a few caveats about driving up to the Australian Alps that ski resort visitors should be aware of. While all of the access roads are paved, they can get very sketchy. Even when conditions are clear, they are twisty with lots of switchbacks and very narrow lanes in places with especially steep gradients to get up the final climbs at the Victoria resorts. Road barriers do not readily exist to keep you from sliding off a cliff if you lose control and swerve off the road. And when it starts storming, the conditions of these roads deteriorate quickly. Carrying chains is required for all two-wheel drive vehicles at the New South Wales resorts.

And in Victoria, even four-wheel drive cars are required to carry them at all times during the winter and fit them in poor conditions. So, if you are not familiar with using chains before renting a car to drive up to an Australian ski resort, be sure to brush up before your trip. A big reason why these considerations are so important is that public transportation to Australian ski resorts, much like in the United States, is not all that great, and it can also be fairly expensive for what it is. Buses from Sydney and Melbourne to the resort towns are expensive and sometimes book up weeks in advance. If you're already in the resort foothills and starting from a town just outside the resort boundary, buses will still probably cost quite a bit of money. And if you're adding the ski tube in particular, you'll have to pay nearly 60 Australian dollars for a roundtrip ticket. When it comes to actually staying at an Australian ski resort, every major mountain has some sort of base village with on-site lodging.

However, they don't all function like North American ski towns. In some cases, you can drive up right to your hotel or lodge, but in others, the slopeside accommodations do not have traditional roads that lead to them. As a result, you'll often have to take a snowcat style shuttle to reach your accommodation, and you'll have to load all of your luggage into that snowcat as well. In many cases, this shuttle ride is not included with the price of your booking. So, while the novelty can be quite a bit of fun, it also adds time and extra costs to the arrival process.

And speaking of costs, it turns out that the sheer volume of expenses is a very critical aspect to the Australian ski resort experience. Let's start with mountain access. There are five major ski resorts in Australia. Perisher, False Creek, Hotham, Thredbo, and Mount Buller. As of 2025, Epic and Icon have captured every single one of them, with Veil Resorts owning the first three and the Icon Pass having multi-day partnerships with the other two. This arguably makes the Pass Duopoly in Australia even worse than in America, where there are at least some independently affiliated resorts if you know where to look. With the past-driven access model in full form in Australia, the country suffers from the same issues with lift ticket prices as in the United States. While passes purchased months in advance can be solid values, day tickets often approach US holiday weekend rates with the rate for a Perisher 1-day ticket topping out at $264 Australian or around $175.

And because there's no competition outside these mega pass operators, prices stay high all season. The situation is even more ridiculous when it comes to lodging. Staying slopeside often means shelling out over $500 for the cheapest accommodations. Towns within an hour's drive aren't always that much better. The options in Gindabine, which is the main hub for Perisher and Thredbo, go for steep rates that would raise eyebrows even in some high-end North American ski towns.

In Victoria, prices are a bit more forgiving for off- mountain stays, but they're still far from quote unquote budget. Many cheaper properties come with shared bathrooms, and camping has become a surprisingly common option for visitors looking to keep costs manageable. Another big difference from the US and Europe is that all of Australia's major ski resorts are located in national parks. This is a major contrast with the United States where national parks have been largely protected from ski resort development and as a result, no major resorts are located in one. But where this becomes especially relevant to the cost equation is that driving to every Australian ski resort warrants a national park entry fee. And these entry fees are not trivial. In New South Wales, a one-day pass costs 29 Australian dollars, and there's no discount if you have a lift ticket. That already sounds pretty high, but it's unfortunately just a drop in the bucket when you learn that it's a staggering 67 Australian per day to drive to the Victoria ski resorts. Buses from nearby towns may seem like an alternative, but a one-person roundtrip bus ticket is no cheaper than the park passes, so there's really no getting around the fee. And if you're not alone, it's still cheaper to bite the bullet and pay for the day pass.

When you take into account the inflated lift ticket rates, parking passes, mandatory chain rentals, and accommodation costs, you're going to be paying one of the highest rates anywhere in the world to ski or ride at an Australian ski resort. Okay, so skiing and riding in Australia is expensive. But do the country's resorts have the on-mountain conditions to justify such a price? Well, one of the biggest surprises for some northern hemisphere visitors may be just how mild the temperatures are. Even in mid-inter, the coldest days rarely dip below -4 C or 25° F.

Perhaps in large part thanks to the milder weather on Mountain Dining leans towards smaller outdoor cafes and bar restaurants rather than the sprawling cafeterias common in North America. There are also some unique food options that are probably more reflective of Australian culture than ski resort operations themselves, including, among other things, meat pies, sausage rolls, and dim sims. Hot dogs are also especially interesting compared to the US. As much as we love our artificial dyes up north, you have some of the most artificially red hot dogs we've ever seen as standard fair at most Australian ski resorts. And if you want to add a spread to anything you buy, of course, Vegemite will be available.

However, while the weather makes for comfortable conditions in a wide variety of outdoor seating opportunities, it also contributes to one of Australia's biggest challenges. Inconsistent snow, seasonal variability is a constant headache. In a bad year, or even just an average one, you'll deal with icy slopes, limited open terrain, and thin cover, especially in mid and lower mountain areas. Complete bare spots can be a thing on open runs, and some resorts will still keep poorly covered trails open if they serve as key connectors. In really lean stretches, you may even have to unclip and walk across dirt. A so-called good season in Australia means decent coverage across most terrain, where a so-called great one usually means that 100% of the resort stays open for an extended stretch, which is obviously far from guaranteed. But when storms do roll through, the Australian ski resorts are heavily compounded by another factor, wind. Strong gusts are a perennial factor in the region's highly exposed slopes, especially above the tree line.

And upper mountain chairlifts consistently face wind holds before or in the midst of storms. This is a major reason why surface lifts are employed so heavily across a lot of the resorts. But even if the slopes are open and natural accumulation does materialize, exposed areas often get scoured down to a hard surface. Storm direction also plays a huge role in snow quality. In general, the more southerly, the better the storm. Pure south winds deliver the lightest snow. The biggest dumps come from the southwest and southeast storms tend to favor the New South Wales resorts. On the other hand, the further north the storm track, the heavier and eventually rainier the precipitation becomes. Since the storms can come from all these directions with substantially less consistency than typical popular ski regions, it leads to wildly varying conditions from one season to another or even within a certain winter. The latitude doesn't help either. Australia's ski resorts are closer to the equator than every major ski resort in the United States and Europe. And given the modest elevation, the fact that skiing here exists at all is somewhat of a meteorological miracle. This is probably a good time to note that thanks to their higher elevations, the New South Wales resorts are more consistent than the ones in Victoria.

Although the circumstances we just discussed apply to all of them. All of Australia's resorts rely heavily on snowmaking to keep things going in bad seasons. The operations are quite impressive at some resorts, even to the point where they can produce mounds of snow or farm it even in warmer weather. However, there's only so long this artificial base will last when it gets too hot. The baseline level of resiliency at the resorts here has increased notably in the past few years thanks to significant snowmaking innovations. But as one might expect, not every trail is covered. So this leads us to another circumstance that those of you watching from the northern hemisphere might have already assumed by this point.

The Australian ski season is typically quite short. While most resorts usually try to spin lifts from the first week of June through the end of September, the reality is that snow cover is rarely consistent for that entire stretch. June usually feels like a warm-up with only a few trails open and heavy reliance on snowmaking. July tends to bring openings for the vast majority of trails, but it also brings the school holidays in some of the busiest crowds. Early August is the true sweet spot. This is when coverage is usually at its peak and you'll have the best chance of skiing or riding a fully open resort. But by late August and early September, spring skiing conditions start setting in fast. And while you can often still get good corn turns in, terrain closures become more and more common by the week, for all practical purposes, you're really only looking at about 6 weeks of quote unquote reliably good skiing, which is a far narrower window than what you'd get in the Rockies, the Alps, or even most seasons in South America and New Zealand.

Speaking of the crowds, the business at Australian ski resorts can be a bit of a factor in your experience depending on when you visit. If you come during the July school holidays, brace yourself for seemingly everyone from Sydney, and Melbourne to be there with you and to wait in at least modestly bad lift lines everywhere. But the true congestion on the slopes is moderated somewhat by the parking situations during peak times. This is a good thing for on- mountain weights, but it's really bad if you don't have on-site accommodations or aren't exceptionally proactive about getting to the slopes in the morning. Car parks fill really early during holiday periods, and resorts can close the road to private vehicles as early as 8:00 a.m. If this happens, you can try your luck with public transportation, but this also means paying the hefty roundtrip per person prices for the buses or ski tube.

That being said, outside that July window, things do calm down considerably. Midweek in August typically feels pretty pleasant with plenty of space on the slopes and generally manageable lines. Certain chokepoint lifts will still back up on August weekends at resorts like Perisher, Thredbo, and Butler, but parking is much more consistently available, at least somewhere on premise throughout the day. Also, Sunday afternoons are typically pretty empty as people get in their cars to drive back to the cities. However, by mid August, you're also playing a game of chance with snow cover. Okay, so if you're already paying all that money to skewer a ride in Australia and you're risking some spotty conditions as well, you probably want to know what the scene is like when you get off the slopes. And to be totally honest, the opera environment in Australia is generally pretty tame.
But it does have its own charm. And if you like a more laid-back pub-like nighltife, Australia's mountains do have some solid options. One of the things you'll notice is that many of the base lodges and bars are owned and operated by the accommodations they're attached to. that gives them more of a lodge lounge feel than a standalone base complex. And it's common to see games like Darts and Pool available to play.

In some cases for a small fee, but in others free of charge. The happy hour atmospheres tend to be friendly and social, even on weekdays, with live music a common occurrence, too. However, if you're looking for nightclubs, you're probably going to be disappointed. Australia regularly enforces DUI checkpoints on mountain roads, and enforcement is strict, especially in Victoria. If you're planning to head back to off- mountain lodging after skiing, it's probably safest to skip the drinks altogether. Finally, be prepared for competition when it comes to dinner. Many ski towns, most notably Gindabine, have restaurants that book out fast.

Even on off- peak weekdays, reservations are essential to make sure you can actually eat at a restaurant. This all being said, if worst does come to worst, all the Australian ski towns have readily available grocery stores where you can buy food to cook. In fact, if you really want to save money, buying a sandwich or materials to prep from these stores will be the most budget friendly option. But if you'd prefer to spend your evening on the ski slopes rather than dining at a restaurant, one thing all the major Australian ski resorts have in common is some sort of night skiing. On the surface, this is a cool feature compared to big North American and European destinations, which rarely, if ever, have skiing or riding available once the sun goes down. However, operations are typically only a few days a week, and they're usually confined to the bunny hill or a small section of the mountain. They're also discontinuous from day skiing, meaning you'll have to get off the mountain for a bit before returning around 6:00 p.m. In the case of Thredbo, night skiing only happens on Thursdays, and you'll have to rent an LED flare. Although this does make for a pretty cool aesthetic.

Okay, so there's obviously a lot to cover when it comes to getting to know the Australian ski scene. But absent everything else, there's probably one thing that you've been thinking about this whole time. Where are the kangaroos in all of this? Well, let's just start by saying this. Wildlife sightings can occur on an Australian ski trip. While kangaroos on the slopes themselves are rare, wombats sometimes appear near village edges, and akidnas can pop up here and there, too, especially at dawn or dusk. These encounters are most likely to occur just below the snow line as you drive up to the resort.

That said, you don't necessarily want to spot larger animals on the road, as vehicle collisions with kangaroos and wombats are far more common than one might expect. But while those bigger animals are probably going to be on the access roads rather than the slopes themselves, the most exotic animals you will probably see on the slopes are the birds. Alpine birds in Australia are much more colorful than the ones at most northern hemisphere ski resorts, and they have incredibly unique sounds compared to what you hear in the Rockies or Alps.

Besides the gum trees, these bird calls are perhaps the most obvious reminder that you are in a ski country very far away from home. If you spend a week or so on a ski trip in Australia, there is a good chance you'll see quite a few of these animals. But even if you don't see them on the slopes, some resort towns are close to zoos where you can get a guaranteed viewing of them. In worst case scenario, there are animal sanctuaries available to visit on your way in or out of Australia from Sydney or Melbourne.

So, when everything lines up, meaning that coverage is good, winds are manageable, and you're prepared for the costs, skiing or riding in Australia might be a bit better than its global reputation suggests. The terrain variety, unique gum trees, and sheer novelty of skiing on the other side of the world all make for an experience you can't quite replicate elsewhere. But with this all being said, the value proposition is hard to justify for most vacationers. Between the lift tickets, national park fees, lodging premiums, transport costs, and the ever-present risk of underwhelming snow, it's a destination that often feels like it's trying to make up for a short season by charging as much as possible. Even many Australians choose to skip their home slopes and save their money for a trip to Japan, Europe, or North America instead. One could easily argue Australia's ski scene is underrated for the experience it delivers in the right year, and if you put in the work, you can certainly have some prime days here. But in general, the region is so overpriced and unreliable that most international visitors will be better off looking elsewhere.
 
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