I'm off boarding in August to Queenstown for a week, for also want to go in Oz in July. I know nothing about Oz ski resorts/conditions and was wondering if anyone could recommend where to go. I'm after somewhere with long runs and preferably on-piste accomodation and of course decent snow so I guess the higher resorts would be best?

Mt Hotham has some pretty good accommodation on the snow.

Skiing isnt better in NZ. All they have is heli-skiing, we win everywhere else. Website did a big comparison thing, and we came off on top.
I like hotham.

I am just coming back from Habuka Japan. The snow here is amazing, heaps of lifts and prices are not too bad for an amazing cultural experience. Its snowing cats and dogs here right now. Had three great days of sunny, warm weather during the day. I have never snowboarded before and can now do front turns a bit but fall over a fair bit. There are many lifts going up two ridges of this huge mountain. It was where they had the winter olympics about 10 years ago.

You can stay in town and walk up to the ski lift areas or catch a free shuttle bus. We stayed in a Japanese style hotel which was really nice. All up cost including gear hire for three days, accomodation for four nights, two fantastic meals a day and two day lift passes was $1500. This was for my wife and I.

Naturally this price depends on the Aussie dollar remaining reasonably strong.

I've always skiied Perisher-Blue in Oz but only because Thredbo had bugger-all snow when I went (due to it's lower altitude). I'd try Perisher or Hotham if you're going in July as it's still fairly early in the season and the snow cover can be a bit patchy.

I'd check out www.ski.com.au/ They have a lot of info and a forum where you'll probably get a lot more informed (and current) opinions. Enjoy your trip/s!