Snowboarding with the Champions in New Zealand

Olympic Champions Shaun White and Kelly Clark competed in (and won) last weeks Burton New Zealand Open Snowboarding Championships Halfpipe competition held at Cardrona Alpine Resort. The NZ Open featured halfpipe and slopestyle snowboarding competitions in a glorious setting with fantastic snow and stunning scenery. The Burton Global Open Series consists of 5 international competitions held each year in Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Asia, Canada and the US. Competitors accumulate points across the events, with the final champions being named at the US Open. This year's event was particularly exciting as it is leading up to the Winter Olympics and many of the biggest names in snowboarding were there. Even the practice sessions were a thrill to watch.

I came to this event particularly interested in watching the women’s competition. When I started boarding 16 years ago there was a huge difference in skill level between the men and women and I was keen to see how much the gap had been bridged. What I saw at Cardrona assured me that the women were indeed catching up with the men, and the sight of fearless young girls flying through the air in both the slopestyle and halfpipe competitions was truly impressive. Nonetheless, the snowboarding scene seems to remain largely a boy’s game, as evidenced by the lack of female riders in Burton’s “The B” movie. Where are the girls?? Even on the Go211 website (www.Go211.com), where official footage of the NZ Open is available for viewing, I was frustrated by the fact that I could not find any footage of Olympic gold medallist Kelly Clark’s winning halfpipe runs.

Aside from watching snowboarding champions in action, I thoroughly enjoyed two weeks of sampling the snow and slopes at some of the finest mountains in New Zealand's South Island. There are far too many ski resorts to visit them all, so we focussed primarily on the resorts where the most snow had fallen. This led us to Ohau- a small resort in the middle of the South Island. Ohau had 15 cm of fresh powder on top of a 2.2 m base, and with the sun shining, a magnificent view overlooking New Zealand’s highest mountains and turquoise blue glacial lakes and absolutely no lift lines- the conditions couldn't have been better. To complete the perfect day of snowboarding we returned to the Ohau Lodge at the base of the mountain to soak in an outdoor hot tub looking over the lake, sip mulled wine and dance to live music at the bar. Heavenly!

Although the stunningly beautiful Queenstown is where most of the action is (shopping, nightlife, and extreme adventure sports), I preferred the smaller and more personal resort town of Wanaka. Wanaka is a half hour drive from both Cardrona and Treble Cone ski resorts. Cardrona offered a variety of terrain for every level of expertise and when the snow was fresh and the sun was shining it was a great place to ski or snowboard. Treble Cone, however turned out to be my personal favorite, with the most challenging and exciting terrain I had yet encountered in New Zealand.

Both Queenstown and Wanaka offer a range of restaurants and accommodation to suit any budget. For great value for money we couldn't go past the Wanaka Motel right in the center of town, where the staff were friendly and helpful and our private balcony overlooked Lake Wanaka. For entertainment in Wanaka, we enjoyed the local cinema, where guests are seated in couches and reclining chairs and drinks and meals are delivered to your seats during the movie.

Although the New Zealand ski resorts are much smaller than European or North American resorts, the amazing scenery, lack of crowds and sheer variety of commercial and club ski fields makes this a well-worth while trip to make. Plus you can ski or snowboard in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere summer! Woooooohooooooo!!!!