Porters Ski Field NZ

The Porters Ski Field (formerly known as Porter Heights) has an under-stated reputation. Since the days of being a club ski field, Porters NZ has transformed itself into a commercial ski resort. When compared to the neighbouring club fields, Porters has plenty of frills. The Porters Ski Field is certainly no Aspen but they have grooming, some snow-making, a chair lift, and a little terrain park. Other developments include a day lodge with a delightful café.

Porters Ski Field affords great views from the top (but not the bottom!), particularly the outlook across Lake Coleridge. Apart from the snap worthy scenery, there is something a little charming about Porters, and the atmosphere is very family-friendly and welcoming.

Pros and Cons of Porters NZ

Pros

• Whilst the beginners’ ski area isn’t huge, the terrain is fabulous for progression from first timer to low-end intermediate.
• Even better, Porters NZ has really cheap beginners’ packages and progression packages.
• To add to the beginner heaven, it is just a short walk between the car park, the beginners’ area, and the ticket office (and equipment rentals). This is ideal for beginners who find walking in ski boots and carrying skis a bit of a challenge.
• Porters ski area has a chair lift and T-bars, which is rather luxurious compared to the nearby club fields that have nut cracking nutcracker ropetows.
• When nearby ski areas are closed due to bad weather (e.g. Mt Shut aka Mt Hutt), Porters sometimes has the ability to remain open. It might only be partially open, but families and shredders can still have fun on the chair lift and the beginners’ lifts.
• The access road is possibly a little bit friendlier than many other NZ ski fields and it’s relatively short so your knuckles won’t stay white for too long. Nevertheless the unpaved road sans safety barriers is still a joke relative to the rest of the world!
• The beginners’ area might be well populated (especially during school holidays), but the rest of the ski field is uncrowded, particularly on weekdays.

Cons

• Whilst the views from the top over the back can be magnificent, the base area and the drive up are possibly the ugliest parts of New Zealand if there is no snow on the ground.
• Porters ski field doesn’t have many groomers so if a melt-freeze cycle has set in and it won’t soften, there’s not much ski terrain (which is common to various NZ ski fields, and at least Porters has some groomed runs!).
• Also common to most New Zealand ski fields:
  • no ski-in ski-out accommodation
  • inconsistency with regards to the snow quality and cover
  • no trees so there’s potential for impaired visibility in bad weather

Ski Porters - Terrain

The Porters ski terrain isn’t large at only 230 hectares, but there are reasonably easily accessed out-of-bounds bowls that provide an extended adventure playground. The size of the resort gives it a nice cosy feel and with only a handful of lifts, it is easy to navigate, which has associated benefits for families.

The vertical drop of 680 metres (1,980 – 1,300 m) is noteworthy for a New Zealand ski field and provides for long runs such as the renowned “Big Mama”.

Porters ski field has great deals to attract beginners, but the mountain is not just for novices with trail stats of 15% beginner, 40% intermediate and 45% advanced/expert. The intermediate trails consist of a few groomed runs whilst the black runs are off-piste and include various rock features and chutes to add to the challenge.

The main lifts for intermediate and advanced skiers are a chair lift and three T-bars straight up the valley, so a degree of traversing is required to get to the peripheral terrain.

Porters Snow

Like many other NZ ski fields, there is no official statistic for the average snowfall per season at Porters. This always makes me suspicious that the ski field doesn’t want everyone to know how little snow they get!!

Like the other New Zealand ski resorts, the snow quality at Porters can vary significantly. Powder days can be awesome but the Porters snow can quickly turn to slop, crust, ice or disappear in some patches. The chair lift and main gully are south east facing, so the snow quality differs somewhat between lookers’ right and left (the famed Big Mama run may not have snow cover!).

Where is Porters NZ?

Porters Ski Field is the closest ski area to Christchurch, about 99km to the northwest in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand. The little town of Springfield is 33km away, whilst Methven is about 1:15 hours away (if you drive a bit cross country).

Porter Heights is located at the southern end of the Craigieburn Range and nearby ski areas include Mt Cheeseman, Broken River, Craigieburn and Temple Basin.

Porters Accommodation

Left-over from the club field days is the club-run accommodation Porters Lodge which is situated half-way down the access road, so it’s definitely not ski-in ski-out. If you go to the effort of putting accommodation “on-mountain” why not put it near the ski area??!

Accommodation Near Porters

Most people stay in Springfield accommodation or there is a little lodging in the nearby village of Castlehill.