Turoa, New Zealand

David Collins from UNITED KINGDOM writes:

This is what you could call my home resort.
I've spent a fair bit of time on the slopes and enjoy the variety of runs and terrain. There are some great little drops and interesting bits of terrain and some nice classic open runs. The cafes are pretty basic and functional and not really the places to waste a lot of time...but then that's what the town is for.
There are a number of downsides if you've spent any time in European resorts.
1. There is no slopeside ski in, ski out accomodation - it's a stunningly beautiful half hour drive up the road which is often closed in bad weather.
2. The runs are short and often very crowded on the weekends, particularly the Howard runs - though with the new development this may change. You often have to queue for the chairs or t-bars for quite a while.
3. There are no tree runs to shelter in in bad weather - and thus the ground underneath is very rocky - your gear won't thank you much.
4. Getting good quality powder is pretty tough - bad weather shuts the place down really fast, often for days stopping you getting to the powder and the temps/winds are too high to let it settle into the soft soft European style knee deeps very often.
Having now slapped it down a bit - go there. The views are the stunning unique NZ ones. You look right down....well take my word. There's a great variety of terrain which is great fun if you get good powder and the parks often have some pretty impressive kickers.
You'll be on a volcano and it's a very doable walk to the top to the crater - and a great trip back down. The season can be pretty long too - it's opened more than once for New Years skiing...and then you can head straight to the beach. There are some excellent runs that can be had (if you put together some lifts) and plenty of terrain to explore - that and with the improving facilities you'll have to spend a lot of time to fully explore the place.

2006-03-14