Cardrona Alpine Resort has for the last couple of decades cemented itself as one of New Zealand’s best snowboarding destinations. Although Cardrona does have a name for being a little on the mellow side of the freeride scale for those in the know there are pow stashes, chutes cliffs and backcountry spots to satisfy most off piste urges. ‘Cardies’ has become the go to resort for park and pipe riding and has showed a dedication to delivering world class freestyle facilities since the early 90s when Sean Gilbertson and friends built New Zealand’s first halfpipe with wool bales, some #8 wire and a chainsaw. It has also long been the center for New Zealand snowboarding competitions and continues to host high caliber national and international events.
Cardrona has long led the charge in terms of man made terrain be it parks or pipe, it looks like this most of the season!
Cardrona opens most years in late June and Closes early October and it gets an average annual snowfall of 2.7 meters. Its base area sits at 1670m, the highest lifted point is at 1860m and out in the backcountry Mt Cardrona stands at 1936m. Its terrain is predominantly intermediate and there’s 345 hectares of it accessed by 2 quads, 2 high speed quads and 3 beginner tows / magic carpets. The resort has excellent facilities including ride in ride out accommodation, a host of coaching and instruction options, childcare and when you need to stop for a bite you can choose from a Pizzeria, a Juice bar, a Noodle bar, an a la carte restaurant and fast food fare.
Cardrona Alpine resort was originally founded and opened by John Lee in 1984 who then sold the resort 6 years later. In the early 2000s John and son Sam Lee continued in ski filed entrepreneurship by opening the legendary but unfortunately now closed Snowpark. Cardrona has always had a historical connection to snowboarding in New Zealand and hosted the Snowboard Nationals for over a decade a contest that was for many years the pinnacle of snowboarding in New Zealand. In 2000 Cardrona enlisted the services of Jim Mangan who set the bar for park design at that time and now with grooming staff such as Hamish Rudhal and Alli Zehetner the park is still epic! Cardies pipes are also top notch and they have NZ’s only Olympic spec (22ft!) pipe and have even eliminated hiking by installing the ‘Wells’ platter tow.
The Arcadia chutes are within a snowballs throw from the park and offer some mean lines like this sizeable back 3 from Will J
Cardrona has for the history of snowboarding in New Zealand been almost unrivaled as the premier host of national and international snowboarding competitions. The resort was for over a decade the host of the New Zealand Nationals, the ‘Extremes’ and more recently international events such as the Winter Games and the Burton Open and High Fives events. Cardrona has undoubtedly helped to push kiwi snowboarding throughout the years as a platform for exposure and progression in the sport.
For those that just want to go snowboarding Cardies has more to offer than just comps and groomed take offs. Do a bit of exploring around Captains Basin on a powder day and you’ll find plenty of hidden stashes and rock drops. Similarly Arcadia Chutes has a ton of rad little lines and cliffs to hit and if its back country you crave there’s plenty of freshies to hike to over the back of Queenstown Return and Captains Basin, on a good season there’s a few spots below the base area worth checking too.
Cardrona is must do on the Kiwi shred map and has something for all shredders be it park, pipe or pow. The resort is no secret so the best time to ride is during the week and don’t forget the puffer things get a little chilly when the southerly is blowin!
Cardrona has a little of everything in terms of terrain and offers plenty of powdery options from pow turns to cliffs to back country booters just a short walk from the lift.