Oz/NZ 2025

[Sbooker]

The socials are telling me there’s a season starter on the South Island. I’m really trying to resist skiing this coming SH winter. My travel has become one dimensional. I really worry what I would do if an injury prevented a ski trip.
I’m going to force myself to enjoy a trip to a beach.

 

[EMSC]

If that ~6 weeks ahead of opening is anything like the US, then most of that ~4 feet of snow will have melted out in the next couple weeks (equivalent of a very early Oct snowfall for a resort that opens thanksgiving-ish in the US).

 

[Skieric]

View attachment 45836

The socials are telling me there’s a season starter on the South Island. I’m really trying to resist skiing this coming SH winter. My travel has become one dimensional. I really worry what I would do if an injury prevented a ski trip.
I’m going to force myself to enjoy a trip to a beach.

As someone from the NH, considering taking a trip to SH winter, I am wondering why the hesitation to ski more locally?

 

[Tony Crocker]

As someone from the NH, considering taking a trip to SH winter, I am wondering why the hesitation to ski more locally?

The logical reason would be allocation of vacation time. I would say Brisbane and Perth are the two worst first world cities in the world for a skier to live. So we can applaud sbooker's dedication to skiing, which makes mine or perhaps even Patrick's pale in comparison.

Sbooker skiing within Australia is the equivalent in cost and travel time as me going to Whistler, except that the skiing in SE Australia is more like SoCal in both scale and snow reliability and probably more crowded.

New Zealand has better terrain, but I've skied there in 4 different seasons, and only one of those trips had snow conditions comparable to average in western North America destinations. Overall I'd consider NZ snow reliability in the ballpark with Vermont, which is a recipe for quality skiing mainly for those who make last minute decisions.

With regard to the current situation, it's not like late October 2021 was for us. We hopped in the car and drove the 5 hours to Mammoth to catch that early opening. Sbooker has complained before that Oz to NZ airfares are no bargain.

 

[Tony Crocker]

If that ~6 weeks ahead of opening is anything like the US, then most of that ~4 feet of snow will have melted out in the next couple weeks (equivalent of a very early Oct snowfall for a resort that opens thanksgiving-ish in the US).

Mammoth is one of the relatively few places where you can expect most of that snow to stick. We returned for another couple of days in mid-November. Meanwhile Palisades opened only for that Oct. 29-31 weekend and couldn't reopen until December.

 

[Sbooker]

As someone from the NH, considering taking a trip to SH winter, I am wondering why the hesitation to ski more locally?

Pretty much what Tony said. Lodging is not at all plentiful and is therefore extremely expensive (think Aspen) and has to be booked with no cancelation months prior. I'm not doing that when there is a decent chance of extreme low tide base or getting rained on. Don't get me wrong I've had some great days skiing in Australia but they are few and far between.
NZ accommodation is more reasonable cost wise but I've got to buy expensive flights and it's also a decent chance of sub optimal conditions. I would rather save the expense of the ski trip in our winter and pay the same to go to and ski in Japan in February.

 

[Sbooker]

I would say Brisbane and Perth are the two worst first world cities in the world for a skier to live

I sometimes curse* that we got this addiction. I have seriously recommended people from Brisbane not to even try skiing just in case they love it an get the bug (and resulting financial commitments) bad.

*Then I get to the mountain and think that I'd pay double to be there if I had to if conditions are great.