SnowPlanet is New Zealand's only indoor snow centre.

If you’ve ever felt the urge to play tennis after skiing, you can this week in New Zealand as the SnowPlanet indoor snow centre offers skiing and tennis lessons in one package.

The snow centre has teamed up with the local Albany Tennis Park to offer a unique holiday experience for children of all ages, tennis and skiing or snowboarding on the same day in the same city for $395 NZ (USD $292) per person for a full week.

Continue reading ‘Kiwi snow centre gets you on the slopes and the court this week’

Whakapapa is on the slope of Mt Ruapehu, and is part of New Zealand's largest ski area.

After a devastating arson attack in February destroyed facilities at Whakapapa in New Zealand, the ski resort has confirmed it will build replacement facilities this (southern hemisphere) summer.

The replacement buildings have received resource and building consents in time for construction before the next ski season. The fire caused well over NZ $10 million (£4.5m) in damage.

Continue reading ‘New Zealand’s Whakapapa to replace facilities destroyed by fire’

Rider Ethan Morgan (Ger) soars over the bag jump at Cardrona Alpine Resort, the first jump of its kind in New Zealand. Photo Credit: Georgina Cleave.

As part of the private pre-Olympic Pipe Camp at New Zealand’s Cardrona Alpine Resort, a Bagjump has been set up to assist with training.

Continue reading ‘Soft landing for olympic halfpipe training’

Porters ski area eyes major expansion plan

Big Plans For New Zealand Ski Area

The new owners of Porters Ski Area (formerly Porter Heights) near Canterbury in New Zealand have announced plans to expand the ski area and build a full resort base.
The 10 year, $250 million (NZ) plan would see a ‘carbon-neutral’ year-round resort complex capable of accommodating up to 3,000 people at build-out completed at the base of the slopes and the existing 700 hectare ski area expanded in to the adjoining Crystal Valley aided by a new gondola and access run.
The developers hope the expanded Porters would match nearby Mt Hutt, which currently sells five times as many lift tickets, and help build Canterbury in to another international resort town destination for New Zealand along side Christchurch.

• Ski New Zealand: Find more stories about skiing in New Zealand ski resorts here.

World Cup skiers competing in the 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games slalom at Coronet Peak today thrilled the large crowd gathered at the Rocky Gully arena, as they encountered gruelling conditions on the internationally rated course, with final honours going to Felix Neureuther of Germany and Florine de Leymarie of France.

The high calibre fields competing in the ANC Continental Cup slalom were a “who’s who” of international skiing with some of the best ranked World Cup skiers from USA, Sweden, Canada, Monaco, France, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, the Ukraine, the Netherlands, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Korea, Estonia, Australia and New Zealand competing.

Continue reading ‘Slalom at 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games’

A quality field of top international athletes has already been confirmed for the inaugural ‘100% Pure’ New Zealand Winter Games, including a host of Olympians, world champions and national champions, with entries still flooding in.
SkiRebel.com has learned that more than 800 competitors from over 20 different countries will descend on the South Island August 21-30 to take on New Zealand’s best winter sports athletes.
Among the stars confirmed so far are five-time Olympic medalist and current Olympic slalom champion Anja Paerson from Sweden, 2006 Olympic cross-country sprint gold medal winner Chandra Crawford from Canada, Japan’s former skier-X World Champion Hiroomi Takizawa, and Australian halfpipe snowboarders Nathan Johnstone, the world number-two, and World Championship runner-up Holly Crawford.

The strength and depth of competitors heading to New Zealand highlights the importance of the Games for athletes ahead of next year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver,”

said Winter Games NZ CEO, Arthur Klap. “For some it’s about sharpening their competitive edge during the northern hemisphere summer, whereas others will be going all out to gain World Cup points and qualify for their national squads.”
Other world class athletes competing at the games include three of Germany’s top four snowboard-X riders, Canada’s top-ranked female skiers in slalom, giant slalom and Super G, and four-time Winter Olympian Patrik Jaerbyn from the Swedish Ski Team which also includes current national champions Andre Myhrer and Kajsa Kling. China is sending a large snowboard halfpipe contingent that includes current women’s world number one, Jiayu Liu.
The inaugural ‘100% Pure’ New Zealand Winter Games will take place at Coronet Peak, The Remarkables, Cardrona Alpine Resort, Snow Farm, Naseby and Dunedin from 21-30 August 2009. They will feature alpine skiing, free skiing, x-country skiing, snowboarding, curling, ice skating and adaptive snow sports as well as the demonstration sports of winter triathlon and natural luge.

• New Zealand: read related stories by clicking here.

During the peak of what is looking like an excellent ski season, the hardest working people at New Zealand’s Coronet Peak resort appear to be the baristas.
Although the resort expects high coffee sales during the country’s school holidays, it’s staff were blown away with the more than 25,000 hot beverages sold to skiers and boarders during that time period.

It’s a pretty awesome feat to produce that many coffees and hot chocolates. That’s way more than ever before and we have received really positive feedback from customers about the quality,”

said Jenny Graham, Food and Beverage Manager at Coronet Peak.
Ms Graham praised staff for keeping up with the demand without any problems.
“It was a huge ask to keep up,” she said. “All our staff came to us as fully-trained baristas, and were then put through intensive training by our coffee supplier.”
Coronet Peak has reported excellent ski conditions, much like other major ski resorts in New Zealand and Southeastern Australia.

• Ski New Zealand: Cath all of the ski news from New Zealand by clicking here.