Cardrona, NZL

The hills in New Zealand may not be able to boast the superlative credentials of their peers in Europe and North America but, between the months of June and October, New Zealand offers the best skiing & snowboarding in the world and, with 1000 skiable acres spread over three south-facing bowls, Cardrona is the best in New Zealand! 

With terrain broken down as 25% beginner/ 50% intermediate/ 25% expert, Cardies is the ideal location for an instructor training course. The mellower terrain is perfect for practicing your teaching drills and cutting your teeth as a Level 1 instructor, the intermediate terrain is best-suited for nailing your carving and working on your Level 2 instructor training and the expert terrain is required to push your skiing and snowboarding to new levels. Captain's Basin has some nice natural features for you to play around in, Arcadia Chutes is where you head to test your skills on the steeps and if you want to ride pow, Tulips has the best hidden stashes! 

Video credit: Cardrona resort

Where Cardrona can compete against any resort in either hemisphere is where its freestyle park is concerned. Or, rather, its four freestyle parks: Big Bucks Park, Stag Lane, Antlers Alley and Lil’ Bucks Park. Big Bucks is where it’s at and where the world’s best freestylers spend their southern winter. With an extra-large triple line ranging from 50ft to 70ft and a whole bunch of technical jib features, this is the biggest park in the southern hemisphere. Stag Lane has medium to large features (2 jumps and 14 jib features), Antler’s Alley has medium features (3 jumps and 5 jib features) and Lil’ Bucks has small features (4 jumps and 4 jib features).

As well as four freestyle parks, Cardies has an International Pipe with 12-14ft walls, a 22ft Olympic Superpipe (same size as X Games and Winter Olympics), the Cardrona Big Air - an 85ft monster table - and the Cardrona Gravity Cross, a skier-/ boarder-cross circuit with sweepers, rollers, jumps & road gaps. Enough to keep you occupied?