Your Guide to Family Skiing Holidays in Wanaka

Wanaka is a fantastic place to stay if you prefer somewhere a little quieter than Queenstown. In Wanaka the focus snowwise is mainly on Cardrona and Treble Cone – but the magical Ohau skifield is within practical driving distance from Wanaka for a day trip. 

Treble Cone has produced more Olympic medallists, X Games medallists, and World Champion freestyle and freeride athletes than any other mountain on earth. The level of freeride skiing and snowboarding you’ll see on any given day is extraordinary. 

The access road to Treble Cone (aka TC) is at Glendhu just 10 minutes drive from Outside Sports Wanaka store in the town centre. You can stay at any of the hotels in town or at the lovely Glendhu Bay camping ground, which has cosy cabins and motel style units. 

You can either drive yourself or take the shuttle from Wanaka. A good option, if it's icy and you're not confident on mountain roads or you're running too late to get a carpark near the base lodge, is to drive to the bottom of the access road and take the free bus to the top. 

TC isn’t a great place for beginners. It’s just too steep and unrelenting. Beginners are much better served at Cardrona. On the other hand if you’re a confident skier and can handle intermediate runs or crave the steep stuff, on its day TC is pure skiing nirvana. The variety of terrain is exceptional from long groomed piste trails to glorious natural terrain parks, and steep chutes and cliffs to jump off. It’s the terrain that makes TC such a joy. 

The best option for a family who wants to ski together is the Triple Treat trail that winds its way down the middle of the mountain, and is accessed by the Home Basin Express six-seater chairlift. It’s a very long groomed trail with tons of options to cut corners for more advanced skiers to get some off piste action along the way.  

The base building is starting to show its age, but is still perfectly adequate with a great cafe, rentals and ski school. 

As per Cardrona buying your family’s lift passes online before you head up the mountain is the easiest and quickest way to go. Check out all the options here. 

Alternative you can go to the ski field office which is just out of Wanaka on the Cardrona Road. Your lift tickets will work at either Cardrona or TC, so you can easily change your mind about where to ski based on the conditions on the day, 

Your best bet is hiring your gear from us at Outside Sports in Queenstown or Wanaka before you head up the hill. Our gear is tuned before every rental and it’s very high quality - from the world’s top brands like Rossignol and Atomic. Hiring from us also saves you a lot of time and hassle when you'd rather be skiing.

If you’re looking to progress beyond the intermediate stage then TC is a really good place to get lessons. Book TC and Cardona lessons here. 

The Rookie Academy an international ski instruction, training, and certification school operates at TC. If you or your kids are serious about progressing your skiing it’s definitely worth a look too. Check out Rookies here. 

Get lessons – you'll enjoy some of the best instruction available anywhere in the world and get to know all the ins and outs of a truly special place to ski. The terrain is expansive and there are many hidden gems to discover. 

We’ve covered Cardrona skiing in detail in another article about skiing in Queenstown which you can read here - but here are the highlights. 

It takes around an hour to get to the Cardrona ski field carparks from Wanaka town centre. Everything considered Cardrona and the Remarkables (also refer to the Queenstown article link to above) are the best places to learn to ski in New Zealand. Cardrona’s variety of terrain makes it perfect for families with a range of abilities. The ski field is wide open and rolling, and the facilities are excellent.

The addition of the new Soho lift for the 2025 season has made Cardrona New Zealand’s biggest ski field, so there lots of room to get away from the main crowds – which can admittedly be pretty heavy at times in the school holidays. Parking reasonably close to the base can be an issue too so maybe consider taking a shuttle from Wanaka or Queenstown instead of your own car. You can also drive to the bottom of the road and get a free shuttle up the hill. 

Ohau is a very special place. It’s not big or especially handy to Wanaka but it definitely has a touch of magic about it. The view over the lake and the Mackenzie Basin beyond is mesmerising, and on its day it has the best powder skiing in New Zealand. Overall you could say that Ohau is the South Island skiing experience in microcosm.  

We’re assuming you’re staying in Wanaka or Queenstown, but you can also stay at Omarama which is about 25 minutes away on the main highway to Tekapo, or Twizel up the road a bit closer to Tekapo, or at Lake Ohau village in an AirBnB, or at Ohau Lodge at the bottom of the ski field access road. 

Ohau is a bit over two hours drive from Wanaka on the Wanaka/Tekapo highway. Look for the well sign-posted turnoff 10 minutes beyond Omarama. On the way you’ll travel through the Lindis Pass. The road over the Pass can sometimes be snowy and is often icy, so leave yourself a bit of extra time in mid-winter. 

The road from the lake up to the ski field itself can be scary, especially if you’re not used to mountain driving on unsealed roads. It’s narrow, there are big drops, no guardrails, and at points the road seems to vanish off the face of the mountain. 

There’s a big variety of terrain for such a compact ski field – from cruisy groomers to extremely steep chutes – so there’s something for everyone, even racers. The US Ski Team with the GOAT Michaella Schiffrin trained at Ohau in the past 

Like TC Ohau can cater to beginners, but there are better options. Best to save Ohau until everyone is an intermediate or better. Given sufficient snow cover you can go pretty much anywhere and never get too far out of touch. 

Basic and homely best describe the on-mountain facilities, but that’s all part of the charm. There’s a small cafe and a sunny deck, and that’s about it. It all adds to experience of being somewhere unforgettable. 

Ski and snowboard lessons run throughout the day. Book on the day top get your slot.  

Find out more about lessons, ski gear rentals, and the on-mountain facilities here.

Ohau has a decent rental operation on the mountain with quality skis and snowboards. 

Consider making Ohau a stop in a road trip from Christchurch to Wanaka or Queenstown, and stay at Twizel, Omarama, or Ohau Lodge. Also keep an eye on the weather forecast – if you love your powder a strike mission from Wanaka might be well worth it (especially considering the mad feeding frenzy that overtakes TC on a powder day).