Cardrona, NZ Review....

CARDRONA ALPINE RESORT, NEW ZEALAND

This summer I did my first season in New Zealand and I will definitely be back again for another one. Such a beautiful country, living in Wanaka I was surrounded by stunning scenery. You will see the most amazing sunrises and sunsets, also I have never seen so many stars in the sky as I saw there!!

 I was lucky enough to get a job as a liftie at Cardrona, meeting/ working with a bunch of rad individuals from all over the world, such a fun way to spend a season of working and riding. Cardrona is the family friendly mountain with a good mix of everything, good pisted runs with a decent sized park and off piste riding with the opportunity for some backcountry if that’s what you enjoy doing too.  NZ had one of their worst seasons snow wise this year but we made do with what we had and still had fun. You could spot lines that would be sick with more snow but you just gotta get creative with what you got!!

There are 4 chair lifts, 1 poma tow and 2 magic carpets to transport you up the mountain. They have Valley View which was newly opened this year and impressively managed to stay open until 2 weeks before the season ended, thanks to some snow making to cover up the thinning snow as Valley View is the lowest down runs on the mountain. Epic on a pow day though and since being opened proved popular not least because you could park your car there instead of driving all the way up the mountain but also due to it’s more challenging/ steeper terrain.

Now for the other main chiairs/ runs….

Captians has the most off piste to explore with some nice drops and mogul runs. It also has sick wide open groomed runs down, nothing better than being first to shred that fresh corduroy on a bluebird day. Another highlight is Captains Café where they are famous for the pizza serve there, mmmm pizza!! The only way back to base from Captains is by long flattish cat tracks so being on a board make sure you go into them with speed. Queenstown Return showcasing some stunning scenery as you ride, waddle, hop, ride some more across it!!

Photo - Karolien Schlambrouk

Whitestar is where you’ll see all the cool kids as yes you guessed it, it’s where you’ll find the park, with a couple of groomed runs down either side of the park and near the bottom some steeper sections all meeting at the bottom people like to go fast while adding in some fun jibbery trickery on the walls of snow at the sides where people track out natural hits/ jumps. In the park they have their pro line of 3 big jumps each one getting progressively bigger than the last with some bigger rails/ boxes on the run in to these. Right next to this is the rail/ box run which is changed and mixed about throughout the season offering something for everyone, a highlight this year being the Burton barrel at the top. Following all this were a 4^th and a 5^th jump smaller than their triple line of jumps with some more boxes/ rails thrown in. A real fun run whether hitting the park or not and would have to say it was my favourite.

 Mc Dougals has the reputation for having the slowest chair, especially because it is for the main green run of the mountain therefore the chair is slowed, stopped and started a lot due to the beginners coming from the learners slope and not knowing how to use a chair lift!! On this run you will find a baby park with some rollers/ jumps and some nice ride on rails/ boxes to learn on. There is some rad chutes to ride down on the off piste here with one small gnarly narrow one that just shoots you out, good fun. From Mc Dougals you can enter Skyline which is a cat track that will take you right back to base but if you venture off the side it has some real nice off piste especially on a powder day with some nice windlips forming that you can go big off!! You can also access their Olympic size half pipe from here which is perfectly shaped and cut pretty much every night as a lot of national teams come to train in it which is amazing to watch. There is now the Wells Platter poma tow going from the bottom of the half pipe to the top making hiking the pipe a thing of the past, and yes you guessed it it is named after the Wells bro’s who are a regular appearance at Cardies training in the pipe or park.

Last but not least as we all have to start somewhere is the Learners slope, this is usually taken over by the instructors but anyone is welcome to use it. There is a tiny slow magic carpet lower down for the lill lil kids who are learning to ski and further up there is what was new for this season a huuuuge long magic carpet, the slope being wide, flat and mellow, perfect for learning your first turns on.

Cardrona is effected by the wind a lot so there will be days when the lifts are effected by this but usually it is not too much of a problem and you can get bad days anywhere!! We had countless bluebird days throughout the season perfect for getting that mean goggle tan.