Aah September. The horde starts to forget about skiing; days are longer; and snow, when it comes, is hopefully falling on a deep, stable snowpack. With the deepest snowpack in the land, on a sneaky visit to New Zealand in early September we put some focus on skiing Mt Hutt. The forecast was promising and we were pumped, but could we find the love?

It astounds me that Mt Hutt isn't more highly-rated by many visitors. Perhaps too many people have been 'bitten' by wind closures. Or maybe too many have experienced the mountain on busy weekends and swear off it. Whatever it is, as far as I'm concerned, for the best lift-accessed terrain in New Zealand, Mt Hutt is number one.

With just three main lifts, the ski area is not difficult to navigate for someone that hasn't been before. The Summit Six is the most important lift, providing access to a mass of terrain. Nor'West chair runs in most weather for beginner and park junkies (plus some playful off-piste). Towers chair is for more advanced riders, but above the mid-load if good for everyone (if operating). For novices, the fully enclosed surface conveyor allows one to learn your turns in all weather! We like that there is a short conveyor to return to the base area from near the Towers mid-load too.

Snow cover on the first day was good above the car park, thinning below it, firm with windblown snow on top in the morning, softening nicely by lunch. On our last day it was powder top to bottom and with much better cover into the Towers chair base area.

Piste trails marked as reds (Euro style) made me feel right at home. Schooming down 'Fascination' is a world-class way to start a ski day. We quickly worked out the best terrain and finding fresh off-piste was easy. As the mountain tends to stage its openings, one of the final last pieces in the puzzle tends to be the highly sought after Virgin Mile and its lusty off-shoots. And oh my f#$@king god the view along the top. All the way down to the Rakaia River and gorge and then across the plains to the sea. Wow. Then dropping into a beautifully pitched bit of untracked powder between 'Free Div'e & 'Platter Splatter' (love that name!). Now that's starting to feel like love. And so it went. Not a bad run on the hill. 'Wilson’s Way' & 'Log Chute' were my favourites off-piste, but anywhere dropping in off the 'Virgin Mile', 'Morning Glory' or 'Mid Towers' was fun. On-piste, 'Reservoir Dogs' is a fine line, and the snaking racetrack stylings of 'Back Paddock' & 'Way Leggo' are way more fun than perhaps I would think they’d be.

As we were NOT skiing here on a weekend, crowds were non-existent at the lifts and on the slopes. We never waited in line to get on a lift. The busiest runs were off the relatively short Nor’West Express chair where punters were enjoying the beginner trails and park - suits us! We spent our time on either the Summit Six or Towers. We never saw anyone else at the bottom of Towers chair during our whole visit. I love that. Strangely though, the main eating area (not small by any means) was absolutely jam-packed with people at all times, but the more convivial Opuke Kai Restaurant upstairs was generally quiet and a far better place to have a coffee & hot lunch by the fire. Love it!

The road up is certainly interesting and gets more so when snow-covered and churned up by traffic. In fact I think that that the deep icy mud is way more problematic here in September than any snow on the road. It is not a place for nervous drivers and so we encourage any with doubts to take a bus from Methven or the ski shuttle from the lower car park. On one particularly snowy/muddy morning, in addition to road clearing, we noted the local version of road 'grooming' to compress the churned-up surface - an official 4WD vehicle towing a weighted 'grooming' sled behind it. The road surface was certain better after it went by.

High winds are the killer of all things skiing in New Zealand and Mt Shut has a bit of a reputation for it, so we were relatively 'lucky' to miss just one afternoon during our visits. But we wonder whether it is time to ditch the Mt Shut moniker and move on. So many Kiwi ski areas close due to high winds that pointing the bones at one particular hill is quite unfair. The snow & resort reports from Mt Hutt are online soon after 6am most days are an excellent and generally honest appraisal of what to expect. Makes planning the day so much easier than in the past - again, is the Mt Shut moniker still a fair thing or a true relic of the past when getting an up to date snow report was as rare as hen's teeth? If you happen to get a shutdown day, get out and walk along the Rakaia Gorge or find some love with a soak, sauna, swim, eat and drink at Methven's fantastic Opuke Spa. The private tubs & sauna is fantastic, as is the swim-to bar. The view across the plains across to Mt Hutt is only slightly sullied by a caravan park & racecourse in the foreground, but that just goes to prove that despite how perfect something seems, it aint!

We stayed at two different locations in Methven when skiing Mt Hutt. It is a great small town that still holds strongly to its rural roots. Ski Time had pleasant rooms, a lively bar & restaurant and a filling breakfast. It is rated as 4-star but is maybe more a 3-star in the rooms. Later in the trip we stayed on a local farm in a fantastic self-contained cottage called Holmestead Farm, that was a pleasant 3km stroll into town for dinner.

Of the two main pubs in town, the Brown Pub will provide a true taste of the rural lifestyle, whereas the Blue Pub is styled more an après ski style bar, with some great food. I preferred the Blue Pub. Methven is good for two other things - sunsets over the mountains, and sunrises that glow onto the mountains.

As with skiing anywhere in New Zealand (or anywhere in the world, but even more so in Kiwiland), check the official daily snow report EARLY (between 6 & 6.30am) and if the hill is opening, get on the road EARLY, arrive EARLY, and make the most of it whilst the lifts are spinning. Also, perhaps avoid skiing weekends at Mt Hutt and head somewhere smaller instead to get more bang for your buck.

I had a fabulous time skiing Mt Hutt and would happily return any time. There was so much we didn't get to ski due to the seasonal conditions (like South Face, Rakaia Saddle, Bluffs etc.) and yet we most certainly were not disappointed. Would I spend a full week skiing just Mt Hutt? No, but a few days when the weather is right, mixed with a few days at other Canterbury Highlands ski areas (Porters, Broken River, Cheeseman, Craigieburn, Lyford etc.) makes a a funtastic skication. Mt Hutt provided us the September Love we were so desperately seeking, maybe it can provide the same for you.
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Mt Hutt is a fascinating ski hill. Visited twice and on early September week days. The first time a few days after snow and the second time after fresh snow. First appearances are of a very small ski area, but it is decieving as there are heaps of options, all well managed, and gradually opened through the morning based on checks/safety. Simple, modern infrastructure that provides everything required and fantastic staff. Loved it.

Stayed nearby at Methven. Fantastic town to stay in, with lots of eating options, affordable places to stay and of course the hot springs!
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Its a decent size wide open bowl, go on a clear day for great views. Top to bottom is about 700m, snow was in good cover when I was there, some years it struggles a bit like all NZ resorts. Intermediates have long fast wide runs to choose from, some groomed quite steep on the inner bowl side, and there is some decent accessible off piste as well, but off piste was all ice when I was there. Not too crowded on a weekday, 5 minute max at wait at bottom. Road up may require chains, is long and slow-about 30 minutes or more from bottom and gets closed occasionally for the whole day. Fairly good quality snow, some moderately long runs, very good views, not too crowded outside school hols and weekends, decent lifts, typical NZ ski experience. Methven is an hour by bus/car on the slow mountain road, which is a small town with ski hire facilities. On a world scale not spectacular, but its got some charm, size, wide open bowls and some length.
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It is pretty good, too many crowds and foot passengers though.
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Is really good would recommend it.
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Mount Hutt has reasonable skiing.It is a good option for beginners or intermediates, albeit not the greatest. The ski area has superior facilities to other options within the Christchurch radius. Specifically, it has chairlifts; not rope-tows or t-bars.

The lifts are truly differential. Indeed, if you are looking for infrastructure then Canterbury's ski options are slim. Would I revisit Mount Hutt? No. I would recommend the Otago ski areas instead.
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For people who want a more family friendly resort with a good range of terrain and awesome views, Mt Hutt is almost perfect. However, this particular trip was plagued by icy weather and the typical nz 'melt 'n freeze' cycle. It was also pretty busy because of school holidays. Below the snowline, Methven has a nice laid back atmosphere.

In general, for more adventurous skiers, you'd probably do better to head to one of the Club Fields to the west.
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Very good amount of snow. Not a huge amount of runs for intemidiate riders. Got slightly bored after 4 days.
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$300 for a season pass sounds like a bargain doesn't it? Well the entire population of Christchurch would tend to agree and with no limit on season passes if it is the weekend and there is a hint of sunshine, prepare to queue. Actually if it is really nice prepare to be turned away if you rock up late because the hill is "Full". It seems Mt Hutt suffers from a lack of competition, especially in the high speed chair stakes, the 6 person Summit 6 is the only high speed chair within day trip of Christchurch and it probably handles 80% of the traffic on this mountain. It does make bumping into friends easy though. The only other lift of note is the Tower Triple, an embarrassingly slow chair. With all levels being dumped at the top by the highly efficient chair there are limited ways down for the beginner but the more advanced have more choices. Staff were excellent at maximising the limited infrastructure they had, you rarely saw a 6 person chair without 6 people on it. The South Face and Tower were standout areas for the advanced rider with some fun chutes. Ski Patrol was excellent and the hill tried hard to keep things gradually opening up so there was always something to look forward to. The social media team seems to hype things a little. We headed to the mountain a couple of days after a dump with post on how "The Virgin Mile Will Be Open Today, Fresh Powder!!!" The problem is the hill the day before had done nothing to stop people dropping straight off the chair onto the main run (Fascination) dropping 5 metres then cutting a hard left all the way across the Virgin Mile face then dropping a line. The end result isn't Virgin. When the Virgin Mile actually open the face below was a chopped up mess of hundreds of tracks poaching the lines. More like Madonnas "Like A Virgin"...
Unfortunately Porters Hill et al in the nearby Canterbury Highlands offers good terrain and snow, if you willing to work really, really hard for it. If you want to sit on a chair that doesn't go at a snails pace and you're a Powderhound you're probably best to keep driving to some of the resorts around Queenstown area.

If you're living in Christchurch it's OK (although I'd prefer Porters) otherwise keep driving.
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We visited Mt Hutt for 2 days mid-week at the end of August 2017. They had been having an amazing snow season and the snowbase was over 3m! We purposely visited during the week to try and avoid the large hoards that descend from Christchurch on the weekends. However of the 5 days that we stayed in Methven for, Hutt was only open for 2.

The access road is a well maintained dirt road, suitable for any vehicle, and is very tame compared with some of the crazier club field access roads. Parking was very convenient in the top car park as it wasn’t too busy. Our group was a mix of advanced, intermediate and beginners and Hutt catered to us all really well. Myself and the advanced skiers lapped the 6 seater chair (which is delightfully fast!) whilst the beginners could lap the slower quad chair and we would all meet up at the base of both lifts. The grooming team do an amazing job and you can get some serious carving turns done under the wide blue runs that run under the 6 seater.

Because of the excellent snow base, the entire mountain was open and it was great fun to explore. Some aspects were quite icy first thing in the morning, but as the sun came out they softened nicely. One of the days we visited was perfect bluebird and the views across the fields to the ocean were amazing. The weather did come in pretty hard on our other day and it was a white out for a few hours, not fun at all! As there is only one base area it can get busy, even mid-week and there were always lines for food and drinks.

Overall a great mountain for a few days, that caters well to all ability levels. However don’t always expect it to be open, there were days when all the other club fields were open but Hutt was closed. Definitely hire your own wheels so you have maximum flexibility.
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