NZ has an interesting ski scene with two types of mountains. Commercial resorts and club hills.
The club hills have very little infrastructure typically a surface tow lift or two, and they are volunteer run. Don’t expect too much grooming.
Club hills have basic accommodation, terrible roads to go to them, no lift lines, and heaps of powder.
If you’re planning to work a NZ ski season there’s five main tourist areas.
Queenstown “Home of Adventure” is the adventure capital of NZ with more jet boats, bungy jumping, and just flat out crazy activities for the Adrenaline junkies. It’s also the South Pacific’s number 1 destination in the Traveller’s Choice 2022 awards. Queenstown is the base for Cardona, The Remarkable, and Coronet Peak.
Cardrona has outstanding terrain parks, a half pipe and a wide variety of terrain. It’s high altitude and south facing slopes make for reliable snow. There’s 600m of vertical and 50% of terrain is advanced or expert rated.
Coronet Peak has 462m of vertical and 280 hectares of terrain and a user friendly beginners area at the base of the mountain. Night skiing is available. The Remarkables, sister resort of Coronet Peak has a 486m vertical and has a much more advance and expert terrain.
Queenstown is a four seasons resort town and there’s plenty of hospitality and adventure guide positions available all year round. There’s no real off season.
Wanaka is smaller than Queenstown and is located 28km from the Treble Cone ski resort (known as TC) and 35km from Cardona. Treble Cone is the largest resort on the South Island with 1359 acres and 700m of vertical. More if you are prepared to hike. The mountain has three basins: Home, Saddle and Matatapu. TC has some serious off-piste skiing with 60% of the mountain being rated advanced or expert terrain. It gets plenty of snow so it’s all about the steep and deep. but if you’re chasing wide open groomers, best find another place to ski.
Mt Hutt / Methven: Mt Hutt is the closest commercial resort to Christchurch. It’s only 119km from ChCh so there’s plenty of day trippers. The resort has excellent intermediate groomed runs served by a fast 6 pack lift. There’s also amazing advanced side country stuff and a fabulous learners area. The road is treacherous but there’s a bus from downtown Methven which is where the seasonal workers live. It’s not exactly a party town. Mt Hutt on a clear calm day is beautiful, but it is nick-named Mt Shut because it’s pretty exposed to wind.
Porters is the closest ski mountain to Christchurch. There’s 6 lifts, 285 hectares, 678m of vertical, and a base elevation of 1310m. The terrain is heavily skewed to advanced and extreme terrain. Porters assists staff find accommodation in the Springfield area and transport from Springfield to and from the ski area is provided. It’s all hands on deck for the busy school holiday and period and weekends, but employers definitely get their fair share of ride time during the season which goes from June to October.
Mt Ruapehu is located right in the middle of the North Island and the terrain is unique because the mountain is an active volcano. The half pipes are provide by nature! There’s two seperate ski resort on the volcano: Whakapapa and Turoa. All skiing is above the tree line and there’s rarely a snow shortage. Like all NZ ski areas, there’s plenty of great options for summer employment at the resort. There’s also plenty of summer tourism work in mountain biking at Rotorua, kayaking in the Bay of Plenty area, surfing at Raglan Bay, and wine tourism in Hawke’s Bay. Fun Fact. When I flew to Colorado from Melbourne the flight path was diverted because Mt Ruapehu was spewing red hot lava.
EDIT: La Niña has been very harsh to Mt Ruapehu and the ski resorts went in to liquidation at the end of the 2022 season. The NZ provided a financial lifeline so hopefully 2023 will be a year of recovery.