Queenstown Winter Festival has kicked off and we're opening Whitestar this weekend!!

We had another wee top up overnight last night, with 8cm falling all the way down to Base and some epic skiing and riding conditions on a sunny Friday. Today we kicked off the on-mountain activities for the Real Journeys Queenstown Winter Festival with the Monteith's Dog Derby, Dog Barking, Tug o' War on Skis and Suitcase Race.

There's heaps going on up on the mountain and in town over the next few days so check out the "Events" section of this blog to find out more.

We're pretty stoked to let you all know that Whitestar Express will be open tomorrow (Saturday), and we'll move across to Captain's soon – we're not far away!!

WEATHER FORECAST

The SnowsBest.com forecasting team are calling a pretty chilly few days on the mountain and another dusting of snow tonight. Every little bit helps so we're stoked to see some more cold stuff in the forecast!

EVENTS

If you're not sure what gear to get this season, you're in for a treat this weekend with the NZSIF Demo Days! Come try a new snowboard or pair of skis, and hear from the best in the business all about the latest tech.

The second day of on-mountain events for the Real Journeys Queenstown Winter Festival are on this Sunday! The timetable for the day is:

• 7am: Event registrations open
• 8am: Macpac Tour de Cardies
• 11.30am: Macpac Mountain Bikes on Snow

Our team are also in Queenstown all weekend for the festival with a downtown Snow Play – take the kids down to have a slide in the safe hands of our awesome instructors, right in Earnslaw Park!

Next Saturday we have our Ngā Wāhine ō te Maunga (Women of the Mountain) ladies' shred day, with all entries going to Boarding for Breast Cancer! Entries are open now, so check out the event and sign up online.

TERRAIN PARKS

This week the North Face Cardrona Parks Crew did their first rebuild, keeping a full line of 6 features on the right-hand side of the fence, and moving the two beginner features to the left-hand side. The park will stay up there for a few more days at least until we get a touch more snow to start building Lil' Bucks and moving to Stag Lane.

Check out Cardrona Team's Rocco Jamieson in the rebuilt upper McD's park this week:

THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR

We're SO proud of Kiwi and Cardrona Team snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott – she's been nominated for an ESPY award! It's won on public voting so we reckon if we get every Kiwi and Cardrona fan to head to the ESPN voting page, scroll down to "Best Female Action Sports Athlete", and vote for Zoi, we might just see a Kiwi win this huge international award.

The Lounge opened today and it's serving some dee-licious brews and amazing baked goods. It's gonna be our go-to spot for aprés on the mountain this winter so make sure you go check it out!

This weekend we've also got the SkyCity Golden Gondola – see if you can catch a ride and try your luck with their Spin to Win wheel!

‍