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Have you been to the Queenstown Winter Festival ?  It is a great time visit Queenstown, but book early to get accommodation.  It runs from 26 June - 5 July 2009.

We have packages starting at NZ$ 629 per adult
includes:
*  4 nights accommodation at the Mecure Resort in a standard room
*  5 day 4WD car hire

Ski Traveller can add your lift passes lift passes & flights.
Ring Ski Traveller: 0800 11 22 99 toll free NZ
Email: info@skitraveller.co.nz

More information on Queenstown Winter Festival & to book festival event tickets:
http://www.winterfestival.co.nz/
 

The New Zealand ski season is coming up fast.  You can still buy your Earlybird 2009 Mt Ruapehu Season Passes.  The deadline has been extended to 4pm on the Monday the 4th of May. 

Click here to buy your Earlybird Mt Ruapehu Season Pass:
http://www.mtruapehu.com/winter/Season-passes/

2009 Earlybird Mt Ruapehu Season Pass is NZ$ 385 per adult.

2009 Season Pass Holders get the following ski deals in Canada & the USA:
* 50% off lift tickets at Kicking Horse Mountain in Canada
* Free Skiing at Copper Mountain
* Free Skiing at Winter Park

For more information on these deals go to: www.skitraveller.co.nz/hot_deals
Ring Ski Traveller 0800 11 22 99.

We arrived here in Fernie ( A little town with a big reputation and the curse of the Indian Ghostrider ) two days ago after a 4 hour drive from Nelson B.C, snow was falling as we crossed the Salmo/Creston Pass and continued throughout the night. We checked into our 2 bedroom condo at The Sanford Inn to find that we had been upgraded to a three bedroom place with both a pool table and a ping pong table, a nice surprise and a great location half way between town and the ski hill, plus believe it or not a fantastic Indian restaurant to top things off! We awoke the next morning to 17cm of fresh snow and snow still falling. We had the benefit of a personal guide to show us around the mountain, my old ski patrolling buddy Robin is now the mountain operations manager here at Fernie and after 35 years working on the hill we couldn’t be in better hands. We got to ski those secret lines that only those with local knowledge know about with repeats again today. Fernie is a fantastic, well run, well resourced, immaculately presented resort on a par with some of the better resorts in Europe and the US. With amazing skiing across 5 separate bowls, the in bounds terrain is steep and varied plus there’s plenty of groomed runs to keep everyone happy and a well laid out and very efficient lift system and friendly professional staff. The little things really make the difference to a great trip, and this resort has got the little things right, combined with Sarah’s attention to detail on the accommodation front this road trip has been a pleasure. With a week left and Banff in our sights tomorrow we’ll head north through Radium, a compulsory stop and a soak at the world renowned hot springs should fill the tanks for the upcoming encounter that Sunshine Village, Lake Louise and the local gang will no doubt have organized! The Goat.    

REMEMBER that our fantastic Aspen Snowmass Snow Holiday Prize worth NZ$15,000 closes 20th of August!!!!

Enter NOW via our Home Page Entry Form.
www.skitraveller.co.nz
 

Do you have your Mt Ruapehu Season or Life Pass?

YES…..did you know you qualify for FREE Skiing at Winter Park and Copper Mountain in Colorado - GREAT Mountains!!!!

Sarah and I have both skied & stayed at Copper Mountain and Winter Park…..get yourself booked ASAP as your accommodation is discounted too if you book before October and it is filling very quickly.

Talk to us about Copper & Winter Park FREE Skiing….why not book yourself in to take advantage of this FREE Skiing for 2009 before they take away this great offer - it will not last forever!
Make the most of the FREE Skiing while you can!

Talk again soon,
Lianne

Snowvision held a FAB BlackOnWhite First Tracks pre Apres Ski Function on the 8th of May at the VW Continental Cars Showroom…..I am a bit slow getting around to writing about this, but found the pictures I took at the evening and it reminded me to get this up on the blog.  Snowvision raises money to support NZ Ski Athletes so the function was to raise money and to introduce two new sponsors for 2008: Ski Traveller and Power Plate.  It was a fantastic evening, Morton Estate Wines (another sponsor) provided the wine and the caterers worked wonders with the food!  We offered 4 FREE Nights & 4 FREE Days Skiing in Vail to any person from the evening that signed up for the newly launched Apres Ski Club of New Zealand!  So remember, if you sign up to the club and book your ski holiday with Ski Traveller you are in to win 4 Nights in Vail & 4 Days FREE Skiing - the odds are very good ! 
Below are a few piccies from the night …….we hope our clients enjoyed the evening and we do hope that Fiona, from Snowvision, makes this an annual event.  Ski Traveller also launched our WIN A Snow Holiday to Aspen as the evening and we wanted to say a BIG thank-you to Air New Zealand, United Airlines and AspenSnowmass for providing such a fabulous prize.

Lianne - Ski Traveller

Air New Zealand has released some FAB Ski Airfares to help you get to the slopes in North America!  Give us a call today so we can get you on the flights, you must book early to get the BEST Value Airfares.

An ADDED Feature for this year is you can choose to UPGRADE to Premium Economy Class or even to Premier Business Class on your long-haul flights.

The flights at Christmas are filling fast, give us a call to book your flights as soon as you know your dates…..you have 28 days once we book the flights to decide these are right and get the e-tickets issued, but you do need to get these booked now for travel at Christmas and Early January.

Direct flights to Vancover 4 times per week: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Sunday….same days returning.
Direct flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco: daily or twice daily.
 

Two shows in Wellington, Friday night and Sunday night…..at the FAMOUS Embassy Theatre.  Saturday night was the All Blacks vs Ireland rugby game. Great Warren Miller Film & Ski Expo…..the team chatted to lots of people about Skiiing in Colorado and our brochure supplies are now getting very low, which is great as that means we have been spreading the word about how good the skiing is in Colorado - “enter a higher state” is their moto!  United Airlines have some great airfares specials to Colorado released in conjunction with the Warren Miller Film - great value but you must book & pay for these before the end of June.

Telluride is of particular interest, we have run out of these brochures …… if you would like to book your holiday to Telluride, be in quick, lots of you are keen to go this coming season.  We have the stunning Lumiere Hotel, Telluride Mountain Lodge and some great condos - you can choose to be on the mountain or in the quaint historic township, linked to the mountain by a gondola.

Check out the Ski Traveller Team hard at work at the Wellington Warren Miller Show.

Oh we can recommend the following restaurants and cafes in Wellington: Maranui Cafe in Lyall Bay (our favourite, we visited twice) located in the surf club right on the beach at Lyall Bay….fantastic.  Hazel’s behind the Embassy Theatre is great too, we ‘bumped’ in the All Black Coach Graham Henry there on Friday night.  You also must try Chow, Lido and Monsoon Poon.

thanks Christchurch…..we had a great time at the Warren Miller Film & Ski Travel Expo, lots of people keen to Ski in Colorado.  Christchurch turned on a fantastic w/end, the show was Friday evening so we decided to stay on in Christchurch for the weekend.  Mt Hutt wasn’t quite ready to open and the sun was shining so we drove to Lyttleton for lunch…..I can highly recommend the London Street Cafe - great food & wine list.  The afternoon saw us wandering along the beach at Sumner and then seeing as we were there we grabbed tickets to the Super 14 Final….then a quick taxi ride back to SOL (south of Lichfield) Square for  few after match celebrations.  Sunay we awoke to find the Christhchurch Marathon was starting right outside our apartment, none of us were marathon ready so we decided to do a walk in Hagley Park instead.  As we left the hotel in our walking gear, we had some spectators wish us luck for the marathon….we thanked them profusely, if only they knew we were just heading out for a walk in the park….after that it was a visit to the Untouched World factory store (a few purchases later) we were off again, this time to Pegasus Bay vineyard for lunch - again we highly recommend this !!

the Ski Traveller Team have been busy…….the Auckland Warren Miller Film & Ski Travel Expo was GREAT, new venue this year at the Sky City Theatre!  Lots of keen skiers & boarders came along to see the iconic film….always fun and I am always amazed by the antics that some of the skiers / riders get up to…..this year the WOW part was two skiers paragliding in the Alps - very impressive!