Tome9

Hi guys,

Myself and a friend are traveling NZ in May and wanted to work on one of the ski resorts in NZ. We understand Queenstown is a nightmare for accomodation and getting a job, so we've started looking at Mt Ruapehu, in particular the Turoa ski field where we'd stay at nearby town Ohakune.

I was wondering if anybody has worked for Mt Ruapehu before or ever been on holiday? Whether they'd recommend Ohakune as well, as we are both 22 year olds and would like some form of nightlife and something going on, cheers!

barnsleymat

Don't give up on the South Island, Queenstown is only one a many places you could stay and be close to a ski field. There's Cardrona and Treble Cone close to Wanaka which is like a smaller version of Queenstown and lots of people prefer it. There's other ski fields such as Lake Ohau and Mt Hobson, then there's the ski fields closer to Christchurch.

Snap Shot

I live a couple of hours' drive from Mt Ruapehu. 'Kuney' as it can be pronounced by the locals doesn't look that bad for a ski village. There's bars & ski shops etc there but I didn't do any socialising there because we rarely stay overnight.

We took a trip to Ruapehu last August, my husband went skiing all day. I just amused myself for the day. We went home pretty much when the ski lifts closed that afternoon so we weren't to late home. Who wants to be up half the night drinking, anyway ?

The chocolate éclair shop at Ohakune is where the legendary chocolate eclairs come from.

Although I suspect depth charges, B52's or Jaegar bombs as is/was the current trend and drinking games might be of more interest to people of a similar age to yourselves.

The nearby village of Raetihi is practically a ghost town, with so many shops to let. There's a nice café there called, 'Angel Louise.' Apart from the petrol station, coffee shop, corner shop, medical centre and the working-mans-club type bar, that's really about it.

There's good skiing at Tongariro too. My husband is a keen skier. The Tongariro Chateau Hotel is a posh hotel, 6kms from the ski field. I don't know if you would consider working in the catering and hotel industry or just stick to ski resort work. We've stayed at the chateau and it's lovely rather than lively.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts seem to run a lot of ski facilities up that way.

There's a bar and a couple of backpacker style accommodation places here too at Whakapapa Village.

National Park is the little village, or café behind the petrol station as I think of it because that's pretty much all there is. The train station buildings have been converted in to a lovely restaurant but the freight trains still go thundering past, that's uncanny when eating dinner ! The train station platform is still there, I believe there is still a passenger train service that stops at National Park. It's 6km from here to Tongariro village. The view of Mt Ruapehu and Tongariro on a clear day from National Park is breathtaking.

You could do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing if you fancy a long walk, i.e. 13 miles of snow and ice as it will probably be in May.