Best ski resorts in New Zealand

Mt Hutt rises straight from the Canterbury plains 90 minutes west of Christchurch, an exposed Pacific peak that takes the brunt of the Tasman storms and turns it into the deepest, longest season of the New Zealand commercial fields. The road climbs Pudding Hill and the town of Methven sits quietly at the foot.

Treble Cone hangs above Lake Wanaka with the biggest vertical in the Queenstown Lakes, a quiet, expert-leaning mountain where the groomers run long and the off-piste keeps going long after they end. From the saddle you look straight across at Mount Aspiring, and the lift queues are a fraction of those across the lake.

Cardrona rises above Wanaka at the head of the Crown Range, a wide sunlit basin where families and freestylers share the same lift queues. The pub on the way up is a Kiwi institution, the McDougall's Express chair tops out at 1860 m, and the snow stays cold and predictable through a long Southern Alps winter.

The Remarkables sit on the far side of Lake Wakatipu, a wall of jagged peaks visible from every Queenstown waterfront cafe. The lift system climbs into a high, cold bowl ringed by Single Cone, with one of the best freestyle parks in the Southern Hemisphere and family terrain steps from the base.

Queenstown is the Southern Hemisphere's adventure capital, set on the shore of Lake Wakatipu beneath dramatic alpine peaks. It is the lively base town for two ski areas, Coronet Peak and The Remarkables, and is famous for its nightlife and scenery. The Southern Hemisphere winter means you can ski here from June to October.

Coronet Peak is the resort you ski straight after landing in Queenstown. Twenty minutes up a sealed and gritted road, the carpark opens onto Lake Wakatipu and The Remarkables across the water, and on Wednesday to Saturday nights the floodlights come on and the runs stay open until 9 pm.