This wasn’t our first rodeo in Queenstown and once again we absolutely enjoyed our time in this vibrant town/city. A major highlight was a day out heli skiing with Harris Mountains Heliski from near Glenorchy. Are there enough superlatives to describe a day out heliskiing in such burly terrain?!! You can check out our video here.

Another key part of our time in Queenstown was eating (there’s WAY too much great food) and drinking our way around some of the fabulous Queenstown restaurants, cafes and bars. Bar highlights included the Habana Bar and Attiqa roof top bar, along with having BYO drinks on the rooftop terrace whilst watching the sunset at our hotel, Mi-pad Queenstown (you can check out our MiPad Hotel review – highly recommended!). Fabulous restaurants included Madam Woo, Blue Kanu, Bombay Palace, and Ivy and Lola’s and Vudu Café for breakfast.

Pros and Cons of a Queenstown Ski Holiday
Pros:
- Easily accessible with its own international airport.
- An absolute abundance of activities on offer.
- Huge options for quality food and nightlife.
- Lots of eye candy.
- Choice of ski resorts and fantastic heli skiing opportunities (give yourself a decent window of time for heli skiing).

Cons:
- Tourist prices - expect to pay more for everything in Queenstown compared to many other parts of New Zealand.
- Traffic congestion in town and coming into town can be painful at times.
- Queenstown is very touristy so at times it feels all a bit contrived. When you see hundreds of Chinese lining up at Fergburger, you know things have gone a bit cray cray.

Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective
- The snowfall in Queenstown is generally lower than at ski fields further north, but the weather is more stable and the ski fields are less inclined to be closed (due to uncleared road, winds, no visibility or avalanche mitigation).
- The Queenstown ski resorts are not the best in New Zealand for powder hounds, but if you’re a beginner or intermediate then you’ll enjoy the ease of access to the ski fields via paved roads, and well developed amenities.
See our video here

Queenstown is my favourite places during the Southern Hemisphere winters.

Easily accessible via a number of airline carriers. Car hire from the airport is abundant if you want to go that way and the airport is very close to town.

There is a great range of accommodation from Backpackers to Hotels. I found whole houses were cheaper and a lot more fun if you have a big enough group. Air BnB and Bookabach are helpful if you want a whole house. If you get a house, cooking at home can save some cash as QT restaurants aren't the cheapest.

QT is a great town full of good restaurants, bars and nightlife. It's got a good vibe and is always busy. The town itself isn't why I go.
It's a bit touristy and little expensive. But I might only feel that way because I've done about six trips in the last 5 years. If you're going for the first time the town is awesome.

It's all about the Snow. The highlight for me are all the resorts that are accessible from Queenstown. Coronet Peak and Remarkables are the closest from the town. Coronet peak is about 30 mins from town. Remarkables is around 50 mins away and is good fun. There a couple of nice groomers, a traverse with drop ins to a bowl and two good sections of Park. Last time I was there they had a bag to practice flips. They'll flip ya for real. The resort is a bit on the smaller side.

If you have the time to go further, I find Cardrona and Treble cone a bit more fun. Cardrona is around 90 mins away and is one of the best in the area. Big long groomers, boarderX (sometimes),open areas and some little chutes that are great with some pow in them. There is a good mix of Green, blue and black for all levels. The Cardrona Hotel is good place to have a few brews and a feed. It's back down the mountain in the town.

Treble cone is about 110 mins away but well worth the little extra drive. If you have the time or it's a powder day, make it happen.
With the most boardable terrain of the lot. This place has the longest runs and epic pipe gullies. Brilliant on a powder day, the whole 500ha + turn into one big long awesome run. Still great fun even if it hasn't chugged down. Well worth the visit. Enjoy

In QT
Devil Burger over Fergburger any day... Or night as it usually is. Great views from the top of the gondala in town and Luge and paragliding are on top too. Great scenic drive along the lake to Glenorchy.

Have fun!
See our video here

Queenstown is a great place to base yourself for a ski holiday in New Zealand's South Island. You can fly in, jump in a rental 4wd and then drive around the beautiful Lake Wakatipu and take your pick of Hotels, Apartments and Backpacker Accommodation all within a short distance of the main town area which has a huge range of Bars, Restaurants and Shops. The main St has Ski/Snowboard Retailers that can give you good info and organize Heli Trips etc and a local Burger Bar called Fergbuger which is always busy for good reason.

Coronet Peak is the closet Ski Area followed by the Remarkables but there are so many other activities on offer in the region. I would definitely recommend getting a 4wd rental vehicle as putting chains on in bad weather isn't much fun. The weather can be fairly unpredictable so "playing it by ear" and planning day to day on the weather is much better than pre organizing well in advance and then ending up at a field that is hedged in by cloud while another is enjoying perfect sunshine.

If the Ski Fields aren't looking good or you just want to do something else there are numerous adventure activities like Bungy Jumping and the Shotover Jetboat along with Golf and Wineries and Vineyards otherwise just relax and take in the views. Arrowtown is about 15-20 minutes out of Queenstown and has a Gold Mining History and is surrounded by Vineyards. Worth a visit on a down day and there are a few places to eat and a couple of bars.

Queenstown's only negatives are that it's always busy and everything seems to be tourist prices.
See our video here

Ahhh Queenstown! This is without a doubt one of our favourite (if not the best) destinations in the entire world (as you can see by our ratings).

It has everything you could ever wish for when it comes to a ski (or non-ski) holiday. It is particularly ideal if not all members of a group are skiers / boarders; where the other half have hundreds of activities to occupy their time. In fact I would go as far to say that the non-skiers night even have a better time than the skiers when staying in Queenstown.

Activities – Queenstown is deemed the adventure capital of the world. If there is an adrenaline activity invented you will most likely find it in Queenstown; Bungy jumping, jet boating, paragliding, parachuting, white water rafting and the list goes on....

Nightlife / Food – whether you prefer  to take in a relaxing meal with fine wine and great service or you would prefer to jump around on the dance floor until the wee hours of the morning, in Queenstown you have plenty of options to do both (and anything in between).

Sightseeing – The town is set on the spectacular Lake Wakatipu and from just about anywhere in and around Queenstown you get views of the mountains and lake; it is an eye-candy frenzy! There are also dozens of sightseeing tours and activities such as the famous Milford Sound and many wine tours in the area.

Accommodation – every variety of accommodation possible (and surprisingly cheap for what you get due to the huge competition in town).

Shopping – for those that just love to shop, Queenstown has a great array of souvenir, clothing and ski / snowboard shops.

Probably the only negative about Queenstown is that you would need to stay there for a year to be able to just do half of what’s on offer.

Powderhounds rate it a big 5 out of 5!!!

See our video here