Visiting Cardrona
Helpful resort information to assist planning your trip to Cardrona.
- Season opens10 Jun 2023
- Season closes15 Oct 2023
- Accommodation—
- Restaurants | Bars5 | 8
- Nearest Airport Queenstown
- Nearest Train Station —
- Tourist Office Website
- Tourist Office Phone+64 3 443 8880
Cardrona Features
The terrain at Cardrona includes::
- Halfpipes2
- Terrain Parks4
- X-Country—
- Ski Hire—
What's it like at Cardrona resort?
Cardrona is located between Wanaka and Queenstown. The resort sits at 1760m. Cardrona has a good snow record and 8 lifts open up over 320 hectares of skiable terrain. The terrain at Cardrona is rugged and offers lots of natural features that make it interesting. There are good nursery slopes to learn on and the resort offers organised kids activities for children from 3 months to 12 years. This leaves the big kids free to play! Snowboarders and freestyle skies have 2 pipes and 4 terrain parks to explore. Some accommodation is available on site, which is quite unusual for a commercial ski field in New Zealand, but both Wanaka and Queenstown are within easy reach anyway.
Latest photos from Cardrona. View all photos at the Cardrona gallery page.
Photo credit: Jerry Sinclair
Photo credit: Jerry Sinclair
Photo credit: Jerry Sinclair
Photo credit: Colin Upchurch
Photo credit: Snow Forecast Admin
Photo credit: Snow Forecast Admin
Photo credit: Jerry Sinclair
Photo credit: Snow Forecast Admin
Explore Cardrona Location Map
Interactive Cardrona trail map and piste map. View the piste and trails as well as the surrounding terrain and mountain contours for backcountry action. Find and compare nearby resorts by clicking on the resort markers.

Cardrona Live Weather
Resort | Snow Depth | Temp. (°C) | Wind (km/h) | Weather | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Top Lift: | 0.0 m | 1 | ||||
Middle Lift: | 3 | |||||
Bottom Lift: | 0.0 m | 5 | ||||
When's the snowiest month to visit Cardrona?
Visitor Reviews of Cardrona
Lois Martin from New Zealand writes:
2022 has been a great season at Cardrona. All the lifts have been open on most of the days, and few bad weather days in the southern ski fields of NZ this season. The ski field is a great field for intermediate and beginner skiers. And then for those who like to play and do tricks there is the half pipe, the gravity cross course and board parks. As a careful skier, I am pleased I can watch others do these tricks, but they are not in my way at all.
The field holds the snow.
There is the area near base with the magic carpet, tunnel magic carpet, and then a gondola/or lift to allow you to progress as a learner. Then the other two lifts and whole other basin for the intermediate, skiers.
For the advanced skier, this year the Willow chair was open most days and here more advanced skiers can ski off-piste when conditions allow and have the luxury of few in the queue, the lift is slow, but then there is time for your legs to rest.
Yes, the queues can be long in the intermediate, beginner area in school holidays etc, but then where is it not?
The beauty of this field is the easiness of getting up there. Free buses up from one km up the access road running regularly till about 10, save petrol and your car. It drops you and your gear right at the base ticket office and back down buses running after 1.30. A variety of cafe's and more quiet menu areas to refresh or sit and look at the field.
Cardrona has a great adaptive ski program where persons living with a disability can join beforehand a program that enables them to ski.
This season has been great skiing and still is (open till 16th Oct)
Resorts close to Cardrona
Discover ski resorts near Cardrona. Click below to view there ski resort guides.