The best skiing I have ever experienced there was lots of snow due to frequent storms plenty of…read moreblue bird days and high quality skiing 5 STARS

Living in Hawaii, we don't get snow. So of course, when I want to take holiday, I want to play in…read morethe snow. I've only snowboarded 3 times (always a few years in-between each session). So, I am still a beginner and learning. The Remarkables is beginner friendly, however I wish it was a bit wider to give the beginners more room. I found it a bit hard to practice because I was constantly trying to dodge other people. Unfortunately, we only had 2 days on the slopes and we didn't get fresh snow until the day we left. Total fail, but that's just mother nature for you. Since we didn't have fresh snow, the ground was really hard and it hurt to fall TT___TT TRANSPORTATION: Very important to know. https://www.theremarkables.co.nz/transport/ The Remarkables had public transportation options. You can do the Bus ($25) or Hotel Pickup ($35). BUY IN ADVANCE if you want the hotel pickup. They sold out very quickly. If you do the bus option, I highly recommend to just go to the Queenstwon Snow Centre to load on the buses. Even though the map shows like 10 bus stops, they were always full and didn't stop for us. So just walk to the snow center to load up. If you are doing hotel pick up, then you are fine. They make sure to leave the right amount of seats available to guarantee your pickup.

Obviously living in Hawaii, I don't really snowboard ever…read more So I immediately signed up for lessons. They assigned us a meeting time and then broke us down into smaller groups depending on our snowboarding levels. My friends and I got assigned to Niko. He was super fun and was extremely helpful at teaching us the basics. We even ended up signing up for a second day of lessons! Thanks Niko for helping us and making my snowboarding experience that much more awesome! Honestly, I was pretty proud of myself making it up the lift and going down the green! Of course I fell left and right =___= but by our last day I made it down without falling once!! Victory is mine.

I am no expert when it comes to sports. Especially winter sports. We don't see much snow in Hawaii…read more Our experience at Coronet Peak exceeded expectations. We arrived at 7:45 am to beat the rush as we knew we needed to register. Turns out, the systems were down and we'd be unable to register until they came back up. So we asked the staff and they were extremely helpful in allowing us to grab our rentals first and gear up before 1. the systems came up and 2. the large group of kids began lining up for their ski rentals. The rental area employees were also able to open a little early for us again on another day to beat the rush of the kids. I cannot express the amount of gratitude we have for them taking that extra step. One of the members from our group stayed behind to hold our spot in line as he already brought his personal snowboard and boots. Though as we returned from grabbing our rentals and putting on our boots, a lot of newcomers were extremely unhappy that we "cut" in line, which is understandable in their situation, but still a little hostile. Soon after taking a few hard spills on the mountain, I realized that my two day snowboarding skills accumulated over a 5 year span was no longer going to cut it here. I went to the customer service desk to see if I could trade one day of rental/lift for a lesson. They normally do not allow refunds so the clerk needed to double check. Needless to say, they were able to exceed expectations again and go ahead with the lessons. I joined some of my other friends in the afternoon lesson with Niko instead of joining a random adult class. Having the time to practice with a bit of guidance was actually very helpful. We signed up for another lesson the following day just to get us up to a comfortable level. I ran the coronet express up to the blue line peak at the top by the time we completed our trip. Not bad for a beginner. Overall, the service here is impeccable. Lessons are highly recommended even at the slightly steep price. They even hand out chocolate fish at the end of the day which is kind of cool.

Snow Farm primarily offers show shoeing, cross country skiing and dogsledding. But we came here…read morefor the Snow Fun Zone for our 7 year old twins. The Fun Zone has tubing and toboggans down a small hill, as well as areas to play in the snow. This was a great way to gently introduce our Hawaii girls to snow and winter activities. They loved the tubing and trudged their little bodies up the hill countless times while daddy pulled the tubes (!!!) They also had a go at making a snowman, snowballs, snow angels and loved simply rolling around in the fluffy stuff. Price $15/person for a 2 hour session. There's a restaurant/cafe on site. Kitchen closes 3:00 - something to keep in mind if you're there in the late afternoon. Book ahead and come when it's not crowded. We did and pretty much had the place to ourselves - no waiting in line for the tubes, etc. Great alternative to alpine skiing at Cardrona Alpine Resort (on the opposite mountain). The road up to the facility is much less treacherous, also. Update: We went back for a cross country ski lesson for the family. For $150 NZD, we had a one hour private lesson for a family of four and equipment rental (boots, skis and poles). The girls had a really patient instructor who made their lesson so fun and engaging they didn't even notice the blizzard swirling around them. Great experience and totally worth it!