WA
20 posts
I,m off to NZ in three weeks for 10 days skiing at Wanaka and Queenstown.Planning to take kites with me but not sure where i will be able to use kites
Any Ideas ?
I have contacted Snow Park and Snow Farm (cross country) at Cardrona but apparently not able to use kites there ? yet ??
Thanks
Steve
QLD
280 posts
Yip the snow farm is the only place , unless you haqve heaps of $$$$ and go heli snow kiting..... too hard. there are no locals with experiance in the Wanaka Area, so there is little info on where the best area is.. The guy to chat with is Craig Gordon he snow kited there last year...
Choice
WA
3 posts
Hey Steve
What dates exactly will you be in Queenstown? I will be there skiing from 21st Aug for 7 days and am keen to take a kite or two!
Simon
WA
76 posts
Hey guys just landed back from Queenstown this afternoon from a 2 week epic expedition of snowboarding.
Kept my eyes open for possible areas for snowkiting (next year) but didn't see anything in the area that looked too promising. On the other hand up towards Mt Cook there are lots and lots of fields with nice snow coverage, and pretty flat as well. Bit of a drive from Wanaka unfortunately.
On a snowboarding note - Remarkables and Cadrona seemed to be the best places to go. Coronet and TrebleCone were pretty icy and lacking snow.
Have fun, I did!!
Adam
WA
9 posts
Hey dude, I'm from over that way , the best place to go is the Wairau snow farm, it's in between Queenstown and Wanaka . Its on the opposite mountain form Cardrona . The field is mainly for cross country skiers and snow mobile riders .
I haven't been home since I've started kite boarding but have skied there when I was at school and think it would be a really cool place as it's nice open rolling country. They also had some sort of kite boarder competition at the end of last year so there must be a few people around that are into it.
Have a good time.
Richie
QLD
4114 posts
T Soprano, and Steve, I shall be going from 23rd August to Queenstown for 7 days, and have a kite to take too. Maybe we could pool resources to investigate this snowkiting idea? I shall be spending a fair bit of time at the regular resorts, but may be keen on just taking a day or two to try out a kite at this snow farm.
Si hoc legere scis numium eruditionis habes
WA
20 posts
Thanks all for the replies.
Will be there from 14 -23 Aug
Snow farm has said that I cant kite there as have Snow park but will prob try turning up and asking nicely - Will post result here when able to
Steve
QLD
4114 posts
I have been chasing this up and recieved two emails from Snow Farm this morning, the first one said:
In August later we have places that you can kite.
Just come to the Office at the Snow Farm and we will tell you where you can
kite.
We are a proving ground and at times some areas are out of bounds due to the
testing and films.
We charge a fee of $20
and the second one that came through two hours later said:
Thanks for your email.
The problem we have with Snow Farm is that as we have cross country ski
trails, they are pretty much flat and narrow. They are fenced in and so you
wouldn't have any room to Snow Kite.
I have attached a picture so you can see what I mean.
Hope you find somewhere... I understand it must be pretty frustrating!
Kind regards
The picture was rather nice actually, some snow and fences and stuff. Quite picturesque. Certainly wouldn't kite where the picture was taken, but it only showed a couple of hundred metres each way.
I emailed them back to clarify and the next email they sent was even more confusing, so I won't even post it up here. I got the impression that the first email was correct and that you can kite there, I have emailed them back again to check but haven't heard back as yet. Anyway, I am pretty confident that you can and there is this:
http://xtramsn.co.nz/travel/0,,8986-3204171,00.html
which seems to indicate it is ok. So I think I shall follow your example Sarmyles. I can always just go to the resorts all day anyway if I don't get the kite out. Which I may not anyway for safety reasons, I don't know if I'm ready for it yet, shall have to suss it out in person when I'm there.
Hope this helps.
So Steve I might see you at the airport on the way through, T Soprano, want to catch up? email me your contact details.
Si hoc legere scis numium eruditionis habes
QLD
4114 posts
Further to that last post, an email this morning said that the first email yesterday was correct, so you can snow kite there.
Si hoc legere scis numium eruditionis habes
WA
74 posts
howzit all. Writing this from Queenstown. Have contacted SnowFarm - can kiteboard after Sept 1st.
HEAPS OF SNOW !!!FILLTTHHH
WA
20 posts
CURRENTLY IN QUEENSTOWN
SNOW FALLING ON MOUNTAINS WHICH ARE CLOSED AFTER SIX DAYS OF SUNSHINE, BLUE SKIES AND PERFECT SNOW AND SKI CONDITIONS.
HOWEVER THERE HAS BEEN VERY LITTLE WIND TO SPEAK OF ON THOSE DAYS.
MY KITES REMAIN IN THEIR BAG AND PROB WON'T BE USED.
IF YOU ARE FLYING AIR NZ THEY CHARGE $20/KG FOR EXCESS ABOVE 23KG LUGGAGE FROM 20KGS. I ONLY MANAGED TO AVOID COST AS IN A GROUP SO ABLE TO USE SOMEBODY ELSE'S ALLOWANCE
HOPE SOMEBODY MANAGES TO TRY OUT SNOW KITING - LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING ABOUT IT
STEVE
WA
1807 posts
cardona and remarkables for snowboarding?? i was there aug 11 - 21st.... remarkables has only got 2 lifts really
i found cornet peak to be awesome with 4 lifts with no ice when i was there at all mind you it did recieve 1.5 metres of snow the week prior to me getting there
QLD
4114 posts
Am back, snow was good, wind was not. Had kite and was poised to go at a moments notice, but no wind. Except for Friday 27th Aug when a blizzard kicked in and eveything was nuts. When it lifted and the sun came up there was noone left on the mountain (Coronet) except a few and fresh snow everywhere. It was possibly my most memorable day snowboarding ever. Absolute sickness. Kite stayed in bag whole time. Came in handy for packing duty free booze in, that's about it. They never worried about the weight limit for me either, didn't even mention it.
Si hoc legere scis numium eruditionis habes
