School me on club fields and other hidden gems

I assume you meant the West Coast and methven to Greymouth???
If so then...

Porters is sick. This is my regular weekend stop. Lots of steeps, good snow cover. Also has a sick park from the end of July to the end of September. Gets consistent snow cover every year with regular dumps.

Porters Park


Trail Map



Cheeseman is mellow and relatively flat-ish, Redeeming feature is that there are never any people there and the epic slackcountry area called Tarn Basin or just the back bowl. The lines that you can ski, an hours walk from the top T-bar are nearly as good as alaska. Steep and never ever skied. Well only when I'm not there. Usually a few rails set up. Nothing special though.

Trail Map


Broken River & Craigieburn.
You can't get more club field than these two. Broken River is my personal preference, mainly because you can ski right down to your car and the inclinator thing. Craigieburn is fricking ill to though. Takes 20 minutes to get from one to the other, they honour each others lift passes for a few runs which is dope. I recommend staying at either The Burn in Castle Hill Villiage http://www.theburn.co.nz/ or in one of the lodges on the field. Don't stay at craigieburn though, stay at B.R.- the lodges are wayy nicer.

Broken River Inclinator


Average mid-week crowd...


Pow dump


Trail Map
(click for full size)


Temple Basin
Travis Rice said that if there was one place that he could ride for the rest of his life it would be here. It's that good. Its an hours walk from the main road, your gear gets taken up by a gondola thingy.
This place is wicked. The manager is an ex-pro skier but still rips.
Also the Atomic team comes here for product testing on their big mountain skis. (Sage, Dana Chris etc.)

Trail map (click to jizz...)


I have not included Mount Olympus because I haven't been there. It is sick from what I've heard though. Gnarly road. High clearance 4WDs only. Black Diamond Tours operate daily trips from methven to here and B.R and Craigieburn.

wow cheers man thanks!

- and yep definitely ment the west coast, mmm dont know what i was thinking there..

No probs man, happy to help.
Do you surf? Mean surfing all down the coast.

yeah we do actually. That would be an ultimate trip, ski n surf on the same day! but not sure what the luggage allowance will say with skis and boards..

will have to think about it

Some guys I know did this tv show called Speights Surf to Summit. They surfed at about 7 til 8. Drove for two hours from Greymouth to Broken River, skied till 3, then drove to Taylor's Mistake in Christchurch and surfed from 4 ish until it got dark. Such an epic day. Surfing is seriously awesome down Haast way and by Bruce bay which is about 2 hours from Wanaka or three from Greymouth. Usually five foot swell which is super fun

If you were wanting to do a surf/ ski day, kaikoura would be a good place. Ski at mt lydord and surf in kaikoura, they are about 45mins from each other

how cold will the water be? I've only got a 3mm steamer.. booties and hood required?

Dont know sorry, havnt been to the area

Water on the west coast varies from 22ish in the summer to about 16/17 in the winter. Hoods are a good idea and the thicker the better.

I surf in dunedin in my 2/3 in winter. Trust me you will be good to surf without booties and hood, they will make it more comfortable maybe, but for sure you can do it without them.

hey