Southern Lakes including Queenstown and Wanaka
Free and Independent
Wall to wall white. What can you say? Hokey schmokey by pokey perhaps? Far far too much? What you are? They are calling it the biggest snow fall in 25 years, so I guess we have right to be excited.
It all started on Friday the 2nd really. The snow fields went from on hold in the early bird snow report to closed by 11am .... "strong to gale force North Westerly's" they said. Now as the local farmer Bert Little ( he should be called Bert Tall but that's another story ) told us when we first moved in to Little's Road ( yep it's named after Bert's family ) "It's those Norwesters that'll blow your barn down".
And blow it did. In Middlemarch just a few hours from Queenstown they had wind gusts to 163km/h! Barns were getting obliterated left right and centre in Tuatapere. Not only blow, it was warm! Long faces and recollections of previous miserable snow years. Then it rained. And we all got more worried. And it rained. And we all cracked sad jokes about rain. And it was warm. And it rained.
So it was in somewhat of a gloomy state that we settled in to catch up on Jim Hickeys TV One weather. Jim pointed out that it was setting up for a good snow fall in Canterbury .... cold south' easter coming in under a warm north wester or some such but he didn't say anything about the Queenstown area. And then I glanced outside ....
Big white flakes drifting serenely to the ground and settling. And it snowed. Shortly after Jim signed off the power signed off to. A few brilliant bright blue flashes lit up the night sky, high voltage lines bashing in to each other we later learnt, in amongst the snow still falling, a good surge of power that briefly lit the house and it was black again. And it snowed.
Now power black outs are part and parcel of living in the deep south, heck it wasn't that long ago that we were on party telephone lines and the phone number was 14B! You can't get too worried about these things, so we reached for the candles stoked up the fire and bunkered in. And it snowed.
Saturday morning dawned crisp and clear and we had 40cm of snow around the house. The snow fields reported falls of 1 metre plus, and they all ran out of superlatives. The bad news ..... none of the fields could open because they had too much snow! Treble Cone produced a brilliant effort to open the 6 seater at 1pm on emergency power so the lucky ones had a nice afternoon at TC. And for those of you with powder envy the off piste was pretty challenging to say the least, " wind affected crust " and " sticky " were two phrases being touted.
Meanwhile the Wakatipu basin was bathed in brilliant blue sunlight with loud explosive charges from the Remarkables and Coronet Peak reverberating around the valley. What a pretty scene.
And the beauty of it all was that it was all so unexpected! Nobody knew it was coming.
Evan "where is my helicopter" Bloomfield
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>================ Last issue
Last issue we offered a free coffee or latte at the Coronet Peak Brasserie .... and no one collected! All you have to do is print out a page of this SnowReport and take it up to the Brasserie. So come on!!!! I can't believe that one or two of you out there wouldn't like to grab a free hot drink in between some mammoth powder runs?!@#
You can view our previous snow reports online.
>================ David predicted the big fall
And another of our famous KiwiNewZ giveaways has been building momentum since our last serious snow fall in the south .... the 17th of April. ( The winner then was Tony Mole but he took ages to respond and when he did I managed to delete his email - you out there Tony? ) Since then we have had 361 entrants! See I know you blokes and blokesses love free things!
So we all now know about the big dump and yes the correct date was the 2nd of July. Thanks to all those people that emailed me and asked who won. Like this email from Mark Duffy in Pyes Pa Rd, Tauranga. "Was there snow in the trees? Can't even remember what day I picked now........DOH!!!!!! Bet you are pleased tho" - Pleased what!
Three supernatural people put there pin on the 2nd of July. Cam and Mike Holmes both from New Zealand and David Kalcher from Australia. Seeking a democratic solution to this dilemma we let our daughter select a name at random and the winner is David Kalcher from Australia. On ya mate! And seeing Cam and Mike made such a good go guessing ( or is there some science? ) we have decided to award them a consolation Kiwi keyring. On ya blokes!
So the slate is clean and the competition is on again. All you have to do is guess the date when snow will next fall on the trees. Only one guess per person please.
>================ Pick Me Competition
What more winners? We had a great response from lots of people all over the place with friends and colleagues in to snow. 62 people entered our pick me competition to win two free nights accommodation in Queenstown.
I would love to make you all winners but sorry, we had to pick one person. And that was Daniel Newman from Pukekohe. Congratulations Daniel! Here's what he had to say .... "I come from the North Island and don't have enough money to do a south Island ski trip and the North Island skiing is going to suck again so please, please, please can you pick me."
Once again thanks to everyone for the entries and come on down Daniel@!
>================ QANTAS direct from Sydney
Saturday 3rd July was the first flight of the winter for the QANTAS flights from Sydney and wasn't their timing perfect! Always nice to fly into a white winter scene. Air New Zealand also has a weekly service direct to Queenstown from Sydney and Brisbane. Now what more reason do you need to jump on a big jet and cross the Tasman?
>================ Coronet Peak
Recent Snow falls
|
Base
|
Top
|
|
|
4 June
|
6cm
|
10cm
|
|
07 June
|
0cm
|
5cm
|
|
13 June
|
10cm
|
15cm
|
|
16 June
|
2cm
|
5cm
|
|
26 June
|
10cm
|
15cm
|
|
03 July
|
80cm
|
1m +
|
Yep. Coronet is covered and set up totally for the winter. The day after the big snow was perfectly chaotic with school holidays settling into the serious mode and a metre plus of snow proving way to tempting for the modern snowfers.
Reports of people queuing at 7.30am ( sorry lifts open at 9 ), mile long traffic jams ( yes traffic jams! ), T Bar closed ( hmmm ) and turning people away at the bottom of the road in the afternoon because they didn't have any more car parks.
The snow that fell has hunkered down in to a real nice base that will keep Coronet looking good till October. He He. We have had two brilliant clear frosty nights and I am afraid to say to say that the powder is going to get better. And better. Sounds Irish but the frosts dry the snow out and it gets better. And the groomed will be silky smooth each morning for the early bird cruisers.
>================ Cardrona
Recent Snow falls
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Base
|
Top
|
|
|
4 June
|
10cm
|
|
|
07 June
|
12cm
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|
|
13 June
|
10cm
|
|
|
14 June
|
5cm
|
|
|
26 June
|
8cm
|
|
|
03 July
|
70cm
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1m +
|
Monday 5 July report from the team at Cardrona .... " Dry packed powder
on 16km of groomed trails. Perfect clear and calm". I'll go with that.
>================ Treble Cone
Recent Snow falls
|
Base
|
Top
|
|
|
4 June
|
5cm
|
|
|
08 June
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10cm
|
|
|
13 June
|
5cm
|
15 - 20cm
|
|
26 June
|
5cm
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12cm
|
|
03 July
|
65cm
|
1m +
|
I felt it was my duty, for all of you, to check out TC after The fall. A quick call to the Swiss juggler ( now semi retired ) Rene and we were off over the much improved Crown Range to TC. One and a half hours later and we pull in to the car park high above the valley cloud in crystal clear blue - with snow covered mountains. Yep, I'll take that.
Reality hit home in a short puff when we saw the queue for the 6 seater. Alas the storm demons had knocked out the power at TC as well and it was emergency strength only. Who said hurry up and wait? Half an hour seemed like half a day but then we were in T Bar town and it was all on.
And we quickly remembered why we love TC. It is such a challenging mountain you just need to be right on it. And for the first few runs I definitely wasn't right on it. Soft silky snow somewhat sticky and I managed two complete snow drenching somersaults ... you know the ones .... down the neck, in your ear and up your gloves. But when you are on it ..... boy it feels good. And it was good.
>================ The Remarkables
Recent Snow falls
|
Base
|
Top
|
|
|
4 June
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5cm
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|
|
07 June
|
10cm
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15cm
|
|
13 June
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10cm
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|
|
19 June
|
6cm
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8cm
|
|
26 June
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10cm
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15cm
|
|
03 July
|
1m +
|
1.2m +
|
Now we are talking! All of the trails now open with some good groomed novice and beginners areas. Advanced terrain is gradually opening as they do some control work. Homeward bound was looking supreme from the Crown Range. Wall to wall white.
>================ Waiorau Snow Farm
Well when all the other snow areas were closing due to high winds on Friday the hardy Cross Country skier soldiered on and Waiorau Snow Farm stayed open. Good on ya! Then our Lady in waiting Helen Clark, a keen cross country lass herself, did the official honours on Saturday by opening the fantastic new Base Lodge facilities. On ya Helen.
>+++ Thanks to our sponsor == Cardrona Alpine Resort
The Magic Carpet lift at Cardrona is far and away New Zealand's safest and easiest beginner lift. Parent love it and kids learn far faster without getting exhausted from climbing hills and being dragged up by ropes and buttons.
For up to date Snow Reports and fab photos check out;
>================ Queenstown Winter Festival 10 -18 July
Yes it is that time of year again and the snow is just in time to ensure that the 1999 winter festival goes off with a bang. All the keen socialites are dusting off their ball gowns, the outrageous fashion show designers are racking their brains for the killer outrageous idea and the farmers are training for the hilarious Dog Derby on Coronet Peak.
Slide on over to check out the Queenstown Winter Festival events calendar.
>================ More on the storm
Yep. No SnowCam pictures on Saturday the 3rd or Sunday the 4th of July. Fwustwating! Biggest snow fall for 25 years and we weren't beaming it live to the masses. It felt like I was letting you all down! Sorry but I was powerless! Literally.
For the record the last big snowfall in Queeners was the 29th of June 1995 when we had 25cm of snow downtown. That's only 3 days different to this fall. And here's another one to ponder ... in July 1995 we had 22 days when snow fell for a total of 132cm for the month .... oooohh I hope so.
>================ SnowCam Land in the NewZ
See the July issue of NetGuide? SnowCam Land got the big plug which tickled us pink. Thanks NetGuide. Interestingly enough the two other sites mentioned are Boarder Zone and Snow Co. And I happen to know both of the characters involved.
Chris Vile is the solo master mind behind Boarder Zone and his skills with the fab digital Sony video camera and a bit of nifty html and javascript constantly amaze. Not only is Chris an avid Snow Boarder but he screams around on a mountain bike and throws the meanest parties. Now that's way cool. Check out his girlfriends cool Vudu Cafe when you are in Queenstown and yep, Chris has got a Vudu site as well.
And David Scott runs Snow Co. - surely one of the most extensive snow sites in Aotearoa with information on just about every snow field - heck, I have enuf problem just keeping up with 5! David is famous for winning the RSC Championships 10 or so times. He is also famous for swimming in the Crater Lake of Mt Ruapehu - courtesy of an avalanche .....
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>================ Contact Details
Evan Bloomfield fx +64 3 442 8342
PO Box 2125
Queenstown 9197
AOTEAROA
Copyright, KiwiNewZ, 1999