NZ Ski
Write a review
About
Suggested duration
More than 3 hours
Suggest edits to improve what we show.
Improve this listing

Top ways to experience nearby attractions

See what travelers are saying
  • belinda
    128 contributions
    NZ Ski Bus Express
    Sharing my experience in case it helps someone else. First pick up your NZ Ski Pass in town at the Snow Centre. The NZ Ski Bus Express to the Remarkables is an ordeal, it’s a minimum 50 minute wait in line for the bus no what what time you get there, the earliest we got there was 7.10am and we were on the snow 9.30am. The 7.15am line up, on snow 9.50am. When we lined up 7.30am we weren’t on the snow till 10.15am after getting all our rental gear, and were late to our lesson. I met one person who lined up from 6.20am to get on the first bus. While the first bus is scheduled to leave at 8am, it does tend to leave a little earlier than 8am. They definitely need more buses and/or drivers. The line up is behind the Snow Centre opposite the Sofitel and wraps around the corner. I would recommend heading straight to getting fitted for your rental gear, boots, boards/skis and locker ($10/day) as fast as possible. As pretty quickly there is a line up for rental gear. And same on the way down, as soon as your lesson finishes 3.30pm, return all your gear quickly to get in the line up for the return trip, otherwise you will be waiting longer in line for buses as they fill up. The NZ Ski Bus Hotel pick up was sold out on my dates. I also tried the Info & Snow hotel pick up bus which was also sold out. I would say the Hotel pick up bus is worth the extra money if you don’t want to line up for an hour just to get to the mountain. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express and waited in line for an hour down in town only to drive back up and pick up pre-booked hotel pick up customers at the Holiday Inn. Though on the way back all the buses seem to operate as a hotel drop off and we were able to get off at the Holiday Inn Express each day. I would say while some people were wearing masks on board the Ski Bus, most people were not wearing masks and mask wearing was not recommended or enforced by the drivers. I am very cautious about wearing a mask on public transport and indoors and still got covid in Queenstown in August. When I looked at going in July the Ski bus was on a stop sale, they stopped selling bus tickets, as they had 7 bus drivers off work with covid and couldn’t meet the demand. In August I could buy bus tickets online for the particular day(s) I wanted to travel. Also on my third and last day of lessons through the Into to Snow package, our lesson group was bigger than usual as they said they had a lot of instructors call in sick with covid or flu.
    Visited August 2022
    Traveled with family
    Written August 18, 2022
  • Jaqui L
    1 contribution
    Ripped off and disappointed
    Totally disappointed at the rip-off prices at Queenstown ski fields and the policy of not refunding ski passes when the mountains are shut. The skiing was OK at the Remarkables...but it shut early and good at Cardrona, but the whole experienced has been soured by the gouging through prices. At least make the passes transferrable...it's not that hard. Makes me sad to write this as I was born and grew up in NZ. Can't recommend Queenstown skiing without HUGE caveats about how to avoid being ripped off.
    Visited July 2023
    Written July 27, 2023
  • Kerri L
    Mackay, Australia6 contributions
    Quantity over quality
    Remarkables is chaotic, expensive and overcrowded!! I never saw my instructor again after lunch so essentially rec’d half a lesson. I didn’t go back for day 2; Remarkables is unsafe with all the beginner snowboarders and skiers lumped in together. Skiers and boarders were wiping each other out plus those standing in the long queues waiting. Everyone stopping for lunch at 12.30pm is a nightmare and if you still want to venture up to Remarkables, be prepared to pack your own lunch or sell a kidney to buy a feed (not many options either). Lost child protocols need reviewing also!
    Visited June 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written July 2, 2023
  • M. H
    1 contribution
    An irresponsible and dishonest company
    I am one of the injured parties of an incident that occurred on January 1, 2020. We filed a complaint with NZSki and I, along with six other witnesses are very disappointed with Mr. Raubenheimer’s response. Not only did NZSki not take responsibility for their actions, they have distorted the story and changed the narrative of the incident. I would like to share my response to Mr. Raubenheimer’s letter and share what I experienced that day. When the driver dropped us off at Crown Plaza, Queenstown, at round 2 am after a wedding party, I did not see the driver exit the bus to help the passengers off the bus. Most of the passengers exiting the bus that night were elderly, including my husband (age 69) and myself (age 60). As I was exiting the bus, the driver was at her driver’s seat, she attempted to close the door and slammed the door on my hand. If the door had a safety mechanism, my hand would not have been badly bruised and swollen. To date, it is still hurting and I find it hard to conduct daily activities like twisting a wet towel. My husband was in front of me exiting the bus. He has a disability and has trouble walking. When the door slammed into my hand, I screamed, it startled him and he fell onto the curb near the wheel of the bus. I was thankful that another passenger quickly told the driver about the accident so that she did not drive off. In Mr. Raubenheimer’s letter, he described my husband’s reaction to the fall as follows: “...he appeared to be smiling”, ...did not appear to be injured, and seemed happy.” My husband certainly got injured, he felt dazed and lightheaded. He was definitely not happy and as a result, he got a big lump on his head. It is one thing for NZSki to avoid the responsibility for medical fees but it is absolutely dishonest and unethical to change the incident. Not only did they deny their negligence, they changed the story and told a lie. This is very irresponsible and unacceptable. We will not recommend this company to anyone.
    Visited January 2020
    Traveled with family
    Written March 20, 2020
  • Katerina B
    7 contributions
    So sad, worst mountain service
    Ohhhh where to start. Good thing is some people who work for NZ Ski really try hard and are lovely, but that's about it. Bus service is beyond bad. Spending hours to get the spot to come up and then to come down from the mountain. They blame covid, but that has been the same for many years, NZ Ski does not want to invest in staff, so there are always short on bus drivers. Then they cannot manage the bus flows during the day and redirect buses to the busiest spots. you can wait for hours on end in the cold. To issue a card at the Snow Centre takes forever, clearly staff is dealing with some terrible ancient software. And oh boy the rental shop at the Snow Centre deserves its own word of disgust. 4- min to issue 2 board rentals. Along with severely overpriced Queenstown accommodation, all streets in roadworks, this would be a very expensive holiday for you, and you will spend half of your time in queues.
    Visited July 2022
    Written August 2, 2022
  • Chloe
    3 contributions
    Seemed unreasonable
    Wasted $500. Upsold us everything and didn’t have enough staff to cater. Fully understand that businesses are recovering from Covid, but we pre paid for ski hire, bus tickets and lift passes while they knew the chances were we couldn’t get up the mountain due to overcrowding. And terms and coms mean no refunds even though they new they were over selling. Really disappointing and dishearten :(
    Visited August 2022
    Traveled as a couple
    Written August 8, 2022
  • Kelly-Anne P
    Capella, Australia30 contributions
    NZ Ski is the worst experience I have ever had.
    NZ Ski fell flat on service. For a first time ski family the service was shocking. We went into the NZ Ski centre 3 times and each time we never got the information we needed. Our first visit was to get basic information on what we had to do. It was a very relaxed oh you just pick up your ski pass and ski gear. Due to this conversation we didnt get our ski passes then. Thinking it odd that this was not offered we had been to Isite information centre and Sandy provided us with a wealth of information that saved us. 2nd visit at NZSki and we got our passes. We are asked again about rentals and pickups etc. We have kids we need a plan. Again a very relaxed response..... oh its easy you can get it here or on the mountain. So we walk away again with no direction. The following day, and the day before skiing I decide that we need more than this. After finding the equipment hire place we spent the next 2 hours getting sorted out. There were no correct sizes for everyone and we were told we could pick it up on the mountain. We caught the bus and on arrival the complete and utter shambles begins. It's like starving people at a food ration station. The staff are all too young too control or understand the chaos of the situation. It took me over an hour to get one additional set of skiis for one of the kids. When I asked about lockers the young girl pointed at the lockers and that was it. Not there's a central booking station just over there, this is how you use it. No seats, people pushing and shoving it was absolutely crap. Once we got organised and to our lesson it was further chaos. Can I say that you got our money and we got none of the service. So Coronet Peak was closed and all those lessons were transferred to The Remarkables. One ski location with 2 ski locations worth of people. Yann our instructor did a great job, but we spent most of our time in a line with people selfishly pushing and shoving each other. Then at 12.30 all lessons break for lunch. That means that every person on the mountain has a break and wants food at the same time. I am actually exhausted writing how crap this experience was. CRAP CRAP CRAP.
    Visited June 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written July 1, 2023
  • Adrian N
    2 contributions
    Waste of money
    I’m sure the resorts would be magnificent in perfect conditions with everything open but when the conditions are poor, as we just experienced, the limitations are laid bare for all to see. Resorts closed due to lack of snow, one decent chairlift operating, school holidays, wind etc……just way too small to handle the volume of people flocking to the remaining mountains. They should have put a limit on the day passes sold and number of people. It was a nightmare, almost had some guy sitting on my lap at lunch. It’s a huge risk travelling to Queenstown to ski and I won’t be making that same mistake again.
    Visited June 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written July 7, 2023
  • Honest T
    1 contribution
    Not respected in the community
    Don't look after the locals. do not give enough back to the community. Expect business to work around them in town. Do not pay their great employees a liveble wage. Make there employees lose money on bad or quiet times. Not opening all the lifts to save money although we pay for lift passes. Not a respective member of the community.
    Visited July 2021
    Traveled solo
    Written July 31, 2021
  • virginiabishop03
    Auckland Central, New Zealand9 contributions
    Super bus service
    Brilliant service and drivers taking us up the mountain daily. Clean buses and great respectful friendly drivers. Safety number one priority too. Great job. Thanks NZSki.
    Visited September 2020
    Traveled with family
    Written September 9, 2020
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.
Popular mentions

2.5
43 reviews
Excellent
13
Very good
3
Average
3
Poor
4
Terrible
20

M. H
1 contribution
Jan 2020 • Family
I am one of the injured parties of an incident that occurred on January 1, 2020. We filed a complaint with NZSki and I, along with six other witnesses are very disappointed with Mr. Raubenheimer’s response. Not only did NZSki not take responsibility for their actions, they have distorted the story and changed the narrative of the incident.

I would like to share my response to Mr. Raubenheimer’s letter and share what I experienced that day. When the driver dropped us off at Crown Plaza, Queenstown, at round 2 am after a wedding party, I did not see the driver exit the bus to help the passengers off the bus. Most of the passengers exiting the bus that night were elderly, including my husband (age 69) and myself (age 60).

As I was exiting the bus, the driver was at her driver’s seat, she attempted to close the door and slammed the door on my hand. If the door had a safety mechanism, my hand would not have been badly bruised and swollen. To date, it is still hurting and I find it hard to conduct daily activities like twisting a wet towel.

My husband was in front of me exiting the bus. He has a disability and has trouble walking. When the door slammed into my hand, I screamed, it startled him and he fell onto the curb near the wheel of the bus. I was thankful that another passenger quickly told the driver about the accident so that she did not drive off. In Mr. Raubenheimer’s letter, he described my husband’s reaction to the fall as follows: “...he appeared to be smiling”, ...did not appear to be injured, and seemed happy.” My husband certainly got injured, he felt dazed and lightheaded. He was definitely not happy and as a result, he got a big lump on his head.

It is one thing for NZSki to avoid the responsibility for medical fees but it is absolutely dishonest and unethical to change the incident. Not only did they deny their negligence, they changed the story and told a lie. This is very irresponsible and unacceptable. We will not recommend this company to anyone.
Written March 20, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Katerina B
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand7 contributions
Jul 2022
Ohhhh where to start.
Good thing is some people who work for NZ Ski really try hard and are lovely, but that's about it.

Bus service is beyond bad. Spending hours to get the spot to come up and then to come down from the mountain. They blame covid, but that has been the same for many years, NZ Ski does not want to invest in staff, so there are always short on bus drivers. Then they cannot manage the bus flows during the day and redirect buses to the busiest spots. you can wait for hours on end in the cold.

To issue a card at the Snow Centre takes forever, clearly staff is dealing with some terrible ancient software.
And oh boy the rental shop at the Snow Centre deserves its own word of disgust. 4- min to issue 2 board rentals.

Along with severely overpriced Queenstown accommodation, all streets in roadworks, this would be a very expensive holiday for you, and you will spend half of your time in queues.
Written August 2, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Chloe
3 contributions
Aug 2022 • Couples
Wasted $500. Upsold us everything and didn’t have enough staff to cater. Fully understand that businesses are recovering from Covid, but we pre paid for ski hire, bus tickets and lift passes while they knew the chances were we couldn’t get up the mountain due to overcrowding. And terms and coms mean no refunds even though they new they were over selling. Really disappointing and dishearten :(
Written August 9, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Kelly-Anne P
Capella, Australia30 contributions
Jun 2023 • Family
NZ Ski fell flat on service. For a first time ski family the service was shocking. We went into the NZ Ski centre 3 times and each time we never got the information we needed. Our first visit was to get basic information on what we had to do. It was a very relaxed oh you just pick up your ski pass and ski gear. Due to this conversation we didnt get our ski passes then. Thinking it odd that this was not offered we had been to Isite information centre and Sandy provided us with a wealth of information that saved us. 2nd visit at NZSki and we got our passes. We are asked again about rentals and pickups etc. We have kids we need a plan. Again a very relaxed response..... oh its easy you can get it here or on the mountain. So we walk away again with no direction. The following day, and the day before skiing I decide that we need more than this. After finding the equipment hire place we spent the next 2 hours getting sorted out. There were no correct sizes for everyone and we were told we could pick it up on the mountain. We caught the bus and on arrival the complete and utter shambles begins. It's like starving people at a food ration station. The staff are all too young too control or understand the chaos of the situation. It took me over an hour to get one additional set of skiis for one of the kids. When I asked about lockers the young girl pointed at the lockers and that was it. Not there's a central booking station just over there, this is how you use it. No seats, people pushing and shoving it was absolutely crap. Once we got organised and to our lesson it was further chaos. Can I say that you got our money and we got none of the service. So Coronet Peak was closed and all those lessons were transferred to The Remarkables. One ski location with 2 ski locations worth of people. Yann our instructor did a great job, but we spent most of our time in a line with people selfishly pushing and shoving each other. Then at 12.30 all lessons break for lunch. That means that every person on the mountain has a break and wants food at the same time. I am actually exhausted writing how crap this experience was. CRAP CRAP CRAP.
Written July 1, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Adrian N
2 contributions
Jun 2023 • Family
I’m sure the resorts would be magnificent in perfect conditions with everything open but when the conditions are poor, as we just experienced, the limitations are laid bare for all to see. Resorts closed due to lack of snow, one decent chairlift operating, school holidays, wind etc……just way too small to handle the volume of people flocking to the remaining mountains. They should have put a limit on the day passes sold and number of people. It was a nightmare, almost had some guy sitting on my lap at lunch. It’s a huge risk travelling to Queenstown to ski and I won’t be making that same mistake again.
Written July 7, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Honest T
1 contribution
Jul 2021 • Solo
Don't look after the locals.
do not give enough back to the community.
Expect business to work around them in town.
Do not pay their great employees a liveble wage.
Make there employees lose money on bad or quiet times.
Not opening all the lifts to save money although we pay for lift passes.
Not a respective member of the community.
Written August 1, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

virginiabishop03
Auckland Central, New Zealand9 contributions
Sep 2020 • Family
Brilliant service and drivers taking us up the mountain daily. Clean buses and great respectful friendly drivers. Safety number one priority too. Great job. Thanks NZSki.
Written September 9, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Treva Patterson
Auckland, New Zealand7 contributions
Jul 2022 • Solo
Absolutely no customer service as both mountains in Queenstown are owned by the same people. Having a monopoly on the market seems to result in arrogant behavior, which is exactly what you’ll receive if you have the slightest hiccup. No care given for anyone, locals or visitors alike. Appalling as this behavior would start at the top, I feel bad for anyone who works here.
Written July 23, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

ryanjoubert12345
South Africa2 contributions
Sep 2017 • Friends
Just a note this complete highway robbery. Booked and paid for a 4 day pass . Due to issues in my home country I had to move my plans forward by a day and asked for a refund for one day in which I was going to be gone. And to my surprise no refunds this is crazy I can't believe in this day and age in such a well run and secure environment on the ski slopes we cannot get a refund for a single day knowing that I was not there and out the country
Written September 22, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Grant R
Melbourne, Australia5 contributions
Jul 2022
Oh where to start...

First experience was booking on the nzski website before we left home. Multiple challenges including one issue which somehow listed my children as parents and therefore - having booked them into some children's ski lessons during the week I was prevented from booking them into children's lessons on a weekend. Small beer though compared to our experience once we arrived.\

On the first day I booked ski lifts and some private lessons - both were messed up. One of the lessons was for after we left and one of my children didn't receive their lift pass (added to their pass).

Today I booked bus tickets and when we tried to board the pass they hadn't been activated.

NZ SKi's computer systems seem to be appallingly bad based on how long it takes their customer service team to process basic requests and the error rates are terrible.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY - DON'T COME TO QUEENSTOWN TO SKI IF YOU WOULD FIND IT UNACCEPTABLE TO WAIT FOR 1-2 HOURS FOR A BUS IN THE MORNING AND 1 HOUR OR SO IN THE AFTERNOON.

Coronet Peak is known by the locals as Concrete Peak - its icey and has a very limited range of runs.

We won't ever come back to Queenstown in winter for the skiing.
Written July 8, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Showing results 1-10 of 40
Is this your Tripadvisor listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim your listing

NZ Ski (Queenstown) - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go

Frequently Asked Questions about NZ Ski



NZ Ski Information

Excellent Reviews13
Very Good Reviews3
NZ Ski Photos10