Sensational South Island New Zealand Roadtrip | Part One

With plenty of spring skiing still on offer, Snow Action’s Dave Windsor headed to New Zealand for a cheeky South Island roadie & week long ski demo with his long-time mate, Methven legend and Van Deer – Red Bull Sports Ski distributor Jace Pace. 

NZ214 landed in Christchurch at 11:44pm (local time) and Jace was waiting with his cheeky grin and a frosty Sawmill Pilsner, “G’day cuz get into this,” welcomed Jace.  “Roundhill’s closing tomorrow, so we’ll head up there in the morning.  The weather’s perfect – it should be brilliant”.

Day 1: Roundhill, Tekapo / Makenzie Basin

And brilliant it was.  I felt like a ‘long time listener; first time caller’ at Roundhill.  I’d heard so many great reports about this pocket dynamo and was wrapped to be there for our first day … and their last.  Despite their season ending, the cover and grooming was nothing short of excellent.  In fact, it was the best day of pure carving I’ve ever experienced in the Southern Hemisphere … ever!

Roundhill overlooks the deep blue Lake Tekapo and you can catch glimpses of Mt Cook rise above the majestic Main Divide of the Southern Alps.  The groomers are wide, fast and steep enough (but not crazy steep) to let the skis run and hook into some pretty aggressive turns.  It’s little wonder that the Red Bull racing team rip Roundhill most years.

Conditions were perfect, with blue skies, sunshine, -1 degree Celsius, their 3 surface tows turning and a happy contingent of punters looking for their last turns on the Hill.  The seriously long Heritage Express Rope Tow was closed for the season – but when it’s firing you can reach the 2,133m peak and enjoy an expansive side-country with killer views and killer lines through 783m of vert.  I imagine it would be amazing on a pow day.  And at 1,473m it’s apparently the longest rope tow in the world – so you better be confident with a nutcracker.  

Jace put me on a pair of Van Deer H-POWER 68 on-piste carvers, “You’ll like these ones Dave,” promised Jace, “they’re race constructed for a recreational skier with an ash/poplar wood core.  They’ll give you an awesome edge grip and super stability.”  Promise made – promise kept.  I ripped Roundhill with confidence and hit speeds that I’d normally avoid (I’m becoming a scaredy cat with age).  That said, the groomed pistes were beyond phenomenal.  It truly was definition perfect.

Jace, a former instructor at both kiwi and Austrian resorts, reminded me to flex my ankles and initiate my turns with the front of my skis – it’s the little things we tend to forget – and it made all the difference.

The last day party atmosphere on the hill was amplified by their 80’s day theme.  Gotta love the fluoro jackets and jumpsuits.  But the most special thing about the day would have to be the party going on in The Von Brown Hut located mid mountain.  It’s 50m² (give or take) of beers, bubbles and schnaps.

The revelling locals packed the tiny joint and celebrated the season that was.  “It’s named the Von Brown after a ski-instructor that used to live in the hut in the 70s – Peter Brown”, explained Charlie Rieder, as we downed a shot of Pear Williams. “Roundhill was created in the 60s by a group of local farmers.  Then my grandparents bought it in 74,” said Charlie, “my parents ran it from 2000 and I’ve been doing it for the past 6 years.  We’ve got a good snow making system here [17 guns and 2 groomers] which makes it great for opening early – around the 20^th of June, with the ability to run through until mid-September.”

I’m so grateful to have timed my trip to include this wonderful hill.  It’s super special and only a couple hour’s drive from Methven.  What a great way to start our roadie.

Day 2: Mt Hutt, Methven

Hutt calls me back and delivers the goods time and time again.  She’s big, bold and ballsy.  It’s a great all family, all ability, all good mountain with heaps of varied top to bottom terrain, a ripper terrain park and huge beginner’s area.  The winner of the day was Bob’s Knob accessed via Virgin Mile – a screaming high-speed black to show off above the base.’

The hero snow made everyone look good, and despite the glorious sunshine the snow stayed cold and grippy underneath a couple of inches of man-made.  And being a Monday it wasn’t busy at all.  Both the Express 6 & 8 (NZ’s first back in 2020) were queue less, as was the Towers Triple after smashing International a few times.  It also meant we spent much of the morning skiing on cord.

As the day progressed and snow slightly softened, we headed off piste to bomb Towers a couple of times.  When the snow’s on, this is my favourite freeride spot at Hutt.  It’s easy to access off the top lift or you can traverse across to Mid Towers and plan your decent from there.  It’s steep, often deep and great fun.

Jace put me on a set of Van Deer H-POWER 78 all mountain carvers for the varied terrain and options at Hutt.  They screamed down the groomers and were right at home off them.  “They’ll ski as good as the 68s,” explained Jace, “but will give you a bit more flotation when we head off-piste.”  Which is really handy at Hutt, and all over New Zealand for that matter, as it’s all above the tree-line so there’s so much on and off to easily access.

“The best thing about Hutt is reliability,” said season pass holder Brian Williams, “and the good variety of terrain.  I come up here 3 or 4 times a week and NZ Ski has the two resorts in Queenstown too.  So I’m just spending the kid’s inheritance.” 

That’s my kind of retirement plan.  It makes a lot of sense too given how good it is to ski Hutt and the snow always seems perfect – maybe I’m lucky, or maybe it’s how it’s managed.

“The big thing for us is SnowSat – it’s in all our groomers, we know how much snow there is and where it is and we manage snow depth across the mountain so that it’s more consistently spread around,” explained James Mckenzie, Ski Area Manager, “the SnowSat technology really helps to inform our snowmaking … so we really focus our snowmaking only in areas where we fell we need it.  And being able to minimise the amount of snow making saves costs and improves the quality of the snow pack.  This year we’ve been able to drop a groomer out of the fleet because we’re grooming more efficiently.”

It’s all clever stuff and stuff that I sometimes take for granted.  They’ve got about a hundred guns, and a dedicated crew who drive up every day to make it just so.  Which I truly appreciate – thanks James and all your team.  

They also serve up a delicious a-la-carte lunch at the Ōpuke Kai restaurant (Māori for Mt Hutt Food).  Formerly named Huber’s Hut in honour of Willie Huber, one of the resort’s pioneers back in the early 70s.  We share a Superfood Salad of beetroot, quinoa, pumpkin, spinach, mixed seeds, cashew nuts, balsamic & feta and a Mānuka glazed Salmon served with Kumari rösti, lemony green beans, and whipped feta, downed with a cold ‘The Front’ pilsner from Queenstown’s Canyon Brewing.

The wind picked up a little after lunch as the forecasted front slowly crept through the impressive Mt Hutt Range and kept us cool despite the beautiful beaming sun.  The snow skied true and we let the skis run ‘til closing.

The perfect day was finished with an amazing “Trust the Chef” 8 dish degustation at the impressive Båle Restaurant and a couple of glasses of Dicey Bannockburn Pinot Gris.  

“I take inspiration from my travels in my career, I was in LA for bit, then Norway and Dubai, – it’s kind of a mixing pot,” said head chef Floyd Lyttle, “I really want to showcase what’s local to the area but add some French and Asian influence.  I like to structure the dishes around a protein, like Lumina lamb, or a main ingredient, like the red onions from Ashburton.  I just think about food all the time.”  

Highlights included smoky corn ribs with parmesan crema & paprika, roasted bone marrow sauced with a bordelaise sauce, a succulent Lumina lamb rump with an intoxicating Amaretto Jus and subtly sweet cinnamon churros topped with chocolate crémeux – there goes the diet.  

Day 3: Mt Olympus, Selwyn District

A mere hour’s drive from Methven, with the last 17 km on an unsealed goat track, is the heavenly club field of Mt Olympus.  With Hutt, Olympus ranked highest in our NZ Top 5 Editor’s Choice Awards, the king of the clubbies is a must visit if you’re in this neck of the woods and have access to a decent ride.  We crawled up the gnarly road in Jace’s ‘old girl’ – his ever reliable1996 Nissan Safari Grand Road.  A total of 13 vehicles where in the car park and about twice as many people on the hill.  As often is the case mid-week, we had the place to ourselves.

As tradition would have it we started with a “Sloppy Coffee” at the Far Canal Rd Bar – a Jamesons, Kahlua & Baileys infused latte – which went someway to settle the nerves about using the dreaded nutcracker rope tows.  But as they say in the classics – no pain no gain.  

To the uninitiated – a nutcracker is a thick belt worn around your hips that has what looks like a 12 inch metal nut cracker attached to it by a chain.  It’s this contraption that you have to deftly lasso onto a rapidly moving rope to pull you up the hill.  Rumour has it that Baron von Masochist invented it … for the sadist inside us.  Once you get the hang of it (which I did struggle on occasion) the journey up is not so hard and of course what awaits is next level magic.  Ungroomed, untracked, unoccupied glory. 

$30 buys you a hot cooked lunch of burgers, wedges, coleslaw, green salad, soup, bacon & egg muffins.  Remember to order and pay for lunch when you arrive / buy you’re lift pass.

Over lunch on the very communal deck, I chatted with Nicholas Knight and Michael Bell from Vermont, USA “We’ve come to NZ for a week to celebrate Nick’s birthday,” explained Michael, “I freakin’ love it here, it’s spectacular man.  This beats all expectations – the terrain, the food, everything.  I’ll be telling people it’s top-notch and if they’re ever in New Zealand then definitely come for ski here.”

“This place is wild.  I’ve never seen anything like it,” enthused Nicholas, “even the road to get here is an unbelievably breathtaking trip.  This place is beautiful.”

Beauty is certainly a common theme in these parts and combined with terrific terrain and super snow it’s a journey worth taking. 

Whilst most resorts bid farewell and invite you to “come back soon” at Olympus the sign heading home simply states “Back to Reality” – which pretty much sums up the somewhat surreal, sensational and spectacular Playground of the Gods.

But reality isn’t so bad.  We finished the day with a quick trip into Christchurch (the big smoke) for an amazing fusion Asian dinner at the King of Snake in Christchurch with Jace’s marvellous mate – Stimpy.  Great skiing, great food, great wine.  What a day.

Read part two of David’s road trip here.