Cardrona Alpine Resort is an

alpine resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area–a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North A ...

in New Zealand's

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

. The ski field ranges from 1,260m to 1,860m. The distribution of slopes is 20% beginner, 25% intermediate, 30% advanced and 25% expert. There are 2 detachable quad chairlifts, 2 fixed-grip quad chairlifts, 1 detachable express chondola, 3 surface conveyor learner lifts and 1

platter lift A surface lift is a type of cable transport for mountain sports in which skiers, snowboarders, or Mountain bike, mountain bikers remain on the ground as they are pulled uphill. While they were once prevalent, they have been overtaken in popularit ...

to service the halfpipes and big air jump. Snowmaking supplements the 2.9m average annual snowfall. Freestyle

Snowboarding Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralym ...

and skiing are well catered for with 2 half-pipes and 4

terrain parks A terrain park or snow park is an outdoor recreation area containing terrain that allows skiers, snowboarders and snowbikers to perform tricks. Terrain parks have their roots in skateparks and many of the features are common to both. From thei ...

. There is also a "high performance centre" which trains more advanced skiers and snowboarders. Families with infants and young children can use child care facilities provided in the Cardrona Nursery and Ski Kindy. The resort is located near

Wānaka Wānaka () is a popular ski and summer resort town in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand. At the southern end of Lake Wānaka, it is at the start of the Clutha River and is the gateway to Mount Aspiring National Park. Wānaka ...

, 5.5 hours drive from

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, 3 hours drive from Dunedin and 50 minutes drive from Queenstown. On-mountain accommodation is provided in the form of 15 self-contained apartments. There was a tradition, that at the bottom of the mountain, women leave their old bra on the Cardrona Bra Fence before leaving town. Cardrona Alpine Resort was founded by Cardrona Valley locals John and Mary Lee. It opened for its first winter in 1980. There was so much snow in the first winter that the mountain was only able to open for 3 weeks, around many days of clearing the resort road with a bulldozer. John Lee was not a skier, so built Cardrona's base area in the middle of the resort at 1670m – something very rare for a ski field. The resort was bought by the Vealls of Melbourne in 1989. This was also the year Cardrona built New Zealand's first international halfpipe. The old Captain's chairlift (replaced by the Captain's Express) was reinstalled, as the Valley View Quad, below the existing Whitestar Express before the 2010 winter. The main purpose of this lift was to allow construction of a competition grade downhill run, by increasing the lifted vertical available to the resort. General trails are available though. Due to insufficient snow cover this lift did not open for the 2010 season. Stage 2 of the plan was set for the 2011 winter and added snowmaking. The lift has opened every winter from 2011 onwards. In 2013, New Zealand company Real Journeys purchased Cardrona Alpine Resort. Along with Real Journeys, Cardrona became part of the privately-owned Wayfare Group, subsequently rebranded as

RealNZ RealNZ is a New Zealand tourism company based in Queenstown. The company offers a range of travel, cruises and excursions in Queenstown, Milford Sound / Piopiotahi, Te Anau, Fiordland and Stewart Island / Rakiura. It also operates two skifie ...

. In December 2019, the

Commerce Commission The Commerce Commission () (sometimes shortened to ComCom) is a New Zealand government agency with responsibility for enforcing legislation that relates to competition in the country's markets, fair trading and consumer credit contracts, and r ...

gave approval for Cardrona to purchase Treble Cone Investments Ltd. In early 2020, Cardrona reported that they were working towards merging the operations and marketing of the two resorts. In summer 2025, the rebranded RealNZ invested in new infrastructure for the 2025 winter season, adding a new Doppelmayer 6 person chair, a T-bar paralleling the existing Whitestar Chair and a new cafe and retail facility. The new Soho Basin chair is said to add of skiable terrain, making this the largest commercial ski field in New Zealand.

Lifts

In 2016, the McDougall's Quad Chairlift was removed and replaced with a new high speed "Chondala" lift with both 8 person gondolas and 6 person chairs, improving summer operations at the resort. In 2019 they announced that the old McDougall's quad would be installed below the captain's basin of the ski field. However, this was cancelled, as native lizards were found in the area and would have been disturbed by the development. As of 2021 the lift was relocated to the Soho Ski Area and named Willow's Quad, after the cult classic film

Willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

, that was filmed in the area in the 1980's. The lift opens up 65 hectares of new, skiable terrain and will be open for the 2021 winter season. File:Cardrona captains.jpg, View of Captain's basin, Cardrona Ski Field (2023) File:Captains Basin view at Cadrona Skifield.jpg, Captain's basin File:Cadrona (261408228).jpg, Base buildings, Cardrona Ski Field

References

External links

Cardrona Alpine Resort website

Powderhounds.com reviews of Cardrona

New Zealand ski Cardrona page
{{coord, -44.873937, 168.949986, display=title Ski areas and resorts in Otago Southern Alps