Turoa 6 Day Snow Forecast

Damo from Australia writes:

We've just spent a weekend at Ohakune/Turoa at the start of the season.

Having boarded/skied only in Europe before this, mostly at Cervinia, plus Meribel and a few others, NZ is.... different. I like No Frills, and am an intermediate boarder, so Turoa is fine for me. When we were there they only had the lower half open (a 4-seat and 3-seat chair), but we got half-price day passes for it.

The snowboarding is ok - runs were mostly fairly narrow, and weren't too congested, but this is early season with only 1-2 car parks full and zero wait on the lifts. We had 2 blue-sky days - perfect - but the snow machines had to work hard, and spots of rock, ice and earth made it tricky sometimes.

The cafe at base had OK food - I really wanted some hot tasty cheesy pasta as is common in France/Italy, but had to settle for a packaged hot pie or cold sandwich instead. None really tasty, but $5 each, so not too pricey either.

The views - I've only skied the European Alps, so boarding on the sole snow-capped volcano in the centre of snow-free plains is a strange experience! Seeing the plains and layers of cloud below us was pretty beautiful, but also never changes! You can't really roam and travel as you can in some Alpine resorts, with that constant view wherever you are.

One thing that did stand out was the service; the ticket and rental staff were all really friendly and helpful without exception. Maybe it's because they're Kiwi, maybe it was unrushed and early in the season, but it was noted, and stood out.

2011-07-03