RealNZ X Cardrona Visitor Centre — Attraction in South Island

Huge shout-out to Phoebe from the Queenstown outlet.The moment we entered, she greeted us with enthusiasm and she gave us practical tips on wearing our gear quickly which came handy out in the cold snow.

There wasn't a helmet of my size in the shop so Phoebe told me to try again the next day or at the rental shop at the ski resort. The next day we were delayed and had to rush to catch the bus transport so imagine my surprise when the exact size of my helmet was already clipped to my gear, Phoebe is a LIFE SAVER y'all.

It was a madhouse at the ski resort with long queues everywhere at the ski resort (even on weekdays) so do come prepared with water bottles (free water is available at the café), a snack, a locked bag (unlocked cubby holes are available).

Recommend to pay for the bus transport for inexperienced drivers as the road up is windy, rocky and dangerous, many cars broke down on our route up. If you get car sick easily, this is going to be a tough ride.

Overall a good experience but would prefer clearer instructions on what to do and where to go for beginners and where to report for those taking lessons.

Be kind enough to bring all your rented gear back down to the Queenstown outlet if you borrowed it here for everyone's...

I just wanted to take the opportunity to give special thanks to Sarah, Iain and the rest of the Cardrona team.

We arrived in Queenstown with lift tickets to NzSki (CP and Remarks) only to find out they had no available shuttle buses up the mountain. A quick ring around to car hire companies quickly indicated there was nothing available in the town on short notice. Our first Ski holiday in the 2.5 years since the start of the pandemic was looking dead on arrival.

Feeling pretty lost, we happened to wander in to the Cardrona office and were lucky enough to come across Sarah who just happened to have a final few bus seats to Cardrona for the next 2 days, she quickly signed us up.

We can't express our gratitude enough, they really saved our Ski Holiday and after 2.5 years without access to a mountain this really meant a lot to us.

The whole situation ended up being a blessing in disguise as we wouldn't have had the opportunity to visit Cardrona otherwise and the resort is amazing, huge runs, plenty of different areas for all skill levels and...

The Cardrona store was a considerably better experience than the "other" place, my passes were pulled up and issued quickly. Originally I was only planning on 2 days at Cardrona but upped it to 3 days when I found that the bus would pick me up out the front of my hotel vs having to walk into town for other services. Of the 3 drivers we had they were all great and I'd really like to call out Nathan for the absolutely brilliant banter, the brutal efficiency and driving that got us where we needed to be in good time. The other two trips, while not as awesome, were still as good as could be expected. The drivers need to be authorised to slap the few tourists who ruin it for everyone else - my daughter commented that the flight from Queenstown back to Melbourne is less than the 3 hours it took us to get back on the bus due to one family getting it unbelievably wrong by catching a shuttle bus to the base of the mountain and being uncontactable. Would I do this again...maybe for Cardrona I'd base myself in...