They are very frugal with their ski-lifts in New Zealand. Then the can afford to be.
Take Lake Ohau, for example. It has two baby pomas which don’t count and just one T-bar. But, oh, what a T-bar. It goes for a kilometre with a vertical lift of 425 metres. At the top the view makes you groan with awe. Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain is in the far distance of rows and dots of mountains. This one lift services permutations of ski runs. Virtually no-one was on it and it was $35 NZ a day ticket.
There are quite a few ski places like this in New Zealand. I hesitate to call them resorts, for that word conveys images of five-star hotels and the sterility of “”service”. These resorts are cute, friendly, country town and BMW-free. People go there to ski, not to be seen to ski.
Like most New Zealand skiing resorts, you cannot stay on the mountain. The trouble in New Zealand is that regular large dumps would make on-mountain live-in resorts very difficult. Places like Mount Hutt get snowed in for days on end, which would turn holiday schedules to chaos. So you have to drive up the mountain each day, or get a bus, either public or as part of a package.
Ohau is half-way between a club resort and a major resort. The 500kms stretch from Christchurch to Queenstown has about 15 ski areas. Black Diamond tours can take you to the five club resorts. The club resorts usually have rope tows. Some are steep, deep and cheap with bring your own lunch, like Craigieburn. You have to walk in to others. Some, like Mount Cheeseman have a couple of T-bars and some beginner and intermediate runs. They are a wonderful experience – like going to Perisher in 1969, but with views and snow depth and quality unobtainable in Australia.
For those wanting chairlifts and grooming there are New Zealand’s major resorts: Mount Hutt near Christchurch and the big four: the Remarkables, Coronet Peak, Treble Cone and Cardrona near Queenstown.
In New Zealand expect: On the good side: better depth and quality of snow, longer runs, more variety of runs, more night skiing, much cheaper lift-tickets, cheaper accommodation, better views, very friendly people, fabulous tunnel-making for snowboards at Coronet Peak, and lots of other adventure and sight-seeing if you don’t want to ski. One the bad side: treacherous roads, often gravel (though drivers make allowances); less grooming, poorer quality lifts (generally, low-speed and no foot-rests), fewer lifts, fewer high-quality food outlets on the mountain, less variety of shopping on the mountain, virtually no on-mountain accommodation, occasions when the whole mountain is closed for the day or several days due to bad weather, ski-schools slightly less well-run as the NSW resorts.
A critical point: it is best to arrange accommodation, ski-lift, hire-car and flight packages in Australia. The discounts for packages are significant compared to buying as you go. Allow some extra days for non-skiing.