Treble Cone is without a doubt the resort with the best terrain in New Zealand, for most people at least. Experts will find incredible rocky chutes in the Motatapu Basin, advanced skiers will have lots of fun in the Saddle Basin, which is a wide open face where you can pick between fairly steep bowls, and narrow chutes. Strong intermediates will find epic groomers throughout TC, where they can test their carving abilities on surprisingly hard blue runs. There's also a platter run for absolute first-timers.

Unfortunately, though, you can probably already see the issue, which is that beginners and low-end intermediates aren't well represented well at TC. The only proper green run is quite steep, narrow, has lots of sharp turns, and would definitely be a blue run at any other resort. The blue runs themselves, while really fun, are also closer to the red side of the spectrum, and I saw more than a few skiers halfway down Main St (the main blue run) who clearly weren't ready for it.

We arrived at TC the day after a massive storm, but during the school holidays. As such, there weren't really many untracked areas, at least none that were easy to access, and the conditions definitely worsened over the day. Even so, we had a great time off-piste, scoping out the occasional freshy, and in the afternoon we hiked up to the summit, which provided incredible views, and pretty good powder, though even at the summit it was quite heavy.

The crowds at TC weren't great, given we were there during school holidays. Still, the lift lines here never reached the insanity of Cardrona and Queenstown lift lines, and my thighs were happy to have a break between runs.

Finally, don't come to TC if you're after some quality apres-ski. TC's cuisine is limited to a basic cafeteria, as opposed to the fancy cafes on offer at some nearby resorts. They don't quite go to the same level as the club fields, but this is fundamentally a resort for skiers, not someone looking for a nice coffee in the mountains.
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The best option for skiing in New Zealand.

Beginners will have fun at Treble Cone. However, those who have three or four days experience will be frustrated with the jump from the beginners area to the intermediate. There is no gentle change unlike other options.
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We were so mighty lucky to score what was potentially the best day of the season at Treble Cone, with 35cm of fresh powder and clear skies. We were a bit slow off the mark, which is unlike us on a powder day, so by the time we got there the top car park was at capacity and we had to park at the base. It was a 25 minute wait for the bus to arrive, but considering it was a primo powder day (and every worker with a powder clause had taken the day off), the wait was to be expected. Thankfully the queue to the 6-pack was rather manageable despite various buffoons that were trying to get away with pushing in – not on our watch! The lift queues for the quad were a bit longer (there seemed to be a culture of pushing in there too), but relative to Cardrona a couple of days prior when it wasn’t even a powder day, the line up was reasonable.

Despite getting there so late, surprisingly we still managed to get multiple runs in with fresh powder if we put in a little bit of work. Lines off the summit zone were absolutely epic, as were lines on the opposite side of Motatapu Basin just outside the backcountry gate. Fresh lines also lasted a while in Outer Limits, but it quickly became apparent why. The lack of base under the fresh powder made the exit rather heinous.

We’d been out heli skiing with Harris Mountains Heliski a couple of days prior (you can see our review here), and usually a day of resort skiing after heli skiing can be an extreme let down. We were so lucky to get such amazing snow at Treble Cone to make the most of the great terrain.

You can see our thoughts on the pros and cons on the Treble Cone overview page and also see how we rate Treble Cone versus other NZ ski resorts.
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Easily the best commericial ski field in NZ! Although there are only two chairlifts access to a very wide range terrain is straightforward. Excellent off piste and piste skiing. Nightlife is restricted to Wanaka which is excellent.
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Great place
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We visited in August 2015 and it was a bumper season and Mother Nature just kept on giving. The snow cover was amazing and when we visited the temps were reasonably cold so the usual melt-freeze cycle hadn’t set in, and the snow was very nice. It was fun to play on some of the lower runs that in other seasons are non-existent or have marginal cover.

It was a Saturday when we visited and the lift queues for the 4-pack chair lift were absolutely horrendous (everyone had heard it was a fabulous season!), so we gave up after a few runs at the top and retreated to the very comfie deck chairs at the High Altitude Café. This is a great spot to have a bevvie and take in the views.

Other than a little improvement of the intermediate trail alignments, not much else has changed at Treble Cone. See the overview page for our thoughts on the pros and cons of TC, and our ski resorts ratings to see how it compares to other ski resorts around the world.
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While Australia was suffering badly from this year's El Nino and not getting any decent snowfall during early-season, New Zealand, especially the Southern Lakes area, was blissed with tons of snow storms and consistent sub-zero degrees conditions that kept the snow base above two metres.

Unfortunately, everyone knew about that, and coupled with the AU & NZ school holidays, we could not find any powder at all by the time we got there (a couple of days after the storm). All of the off-piste trails (including the Summit's) were tracked out, and were left with icy bumps. However, the overall snow condition was still pretty good for the Southern Hemisphere, and the groomers were fantastic.

Treble Cone is quite large with 550 hectares of in-bound terrain. But this is only served by two major lifts (one being a detached 6 seater & the other one being a fixed quad), which were obviously failing to accommodate the massive crowds during the school holidays season. The beginner poma was equally inefficient and according to my mate who stayed at the beginner's are during the first two days of skiing, the lift queue lasted up to 10 minutes.

Value wise, Treble Cone had the most expensive lift tickets, which didn't do much of justice. However, the beginner's poma and the conveyer lift were FREE, which compensated for the lack of beginner's trails. Beginners might find Easy Rider quite daunting though, as it's narrow, curvy and not very consistent in terms of pitch.

But for intermediates and above, this place is absolutely awesome, with the wide range of terrain ranging from chutes, bowls and steep pistes. Some of the best skiing were found in the Summits, Cloud Nine and the pipes at the Saddle Basin.

Overall, my experiences here were great and I would definitely recommend TrebleCone to a friend who is craving for some serious skiing down in New Zealand.
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Love TC! Best field I've skiied at in NZ (have been to nearly every public field) by far.

Had the best snow, best terrain, best 'vibe' and the least people (although apparently school holidays can be awful).
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Treble Cone is by far the most exciting and diverse of the NZ ski fields. I have been coming to wanaka to ski TC for over 10 years and always find new routes, have a great time and I love how uncrowded the field is. I highly recommended the field - so much that 15 friends from Australia are coming over to see what its like!

The one thing I would like to see in the future is a better terrain park - there seems to be quite a few sweet rails floating around but they are only put up well into the season. It would be excellent to have the terrain park with some of these rails put up and maintained from the get go, especially during July! (and school holidays)
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Excellent field with great natural terrain.

Massive open bowls with natural pipes. A great intermediate to advanced field.

Snow can be late but hit up August for big pow days.
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