HOTH AND COLD DRIVING
A return trip goes up a gear, writes D’Arcy Waldegrave.
The drive through Queenstown from the airport is always eye opening, not just for the sheer beauty of this alpine wonderland, but for the pace at which this former quiet village continues to expand.
As a boy (40-plus years ago), the Queenstown I first visited was a far cry from the glitz and glamour it presents now.
There were residential properties on the main drag, no sign of traffic, let alone traffic lights, and plenty of shanty-town baches littering the little hamlet. The explosion of hotels, casinos, restaurants and luxury retailers beggars belief.
And on this trip, my experience of Queenstown was going to be very different from years gone by. It was all about luxury — a five-star hotel, dinner at award-winning restaurants and the chance to play in the ice and snow with $4.5 million worth of precision German automotive technology.
Every year, Mercedes Benz — the inventor of the first petrol-powered car — invites high-rolling clients to spend a day at the Southern Hemisphere Proving Grounds, testing the winter capabilities of their top-of-the line AMG monsters (AMG is the high-performance division of Mercedes-Benz and the cars generally have better handling and better stability than regular Mercedes).
The Proving Grounds, adjacent to the Snow Farm overlooking Wanaka’s Cardrona Valley, is the world’s largest snow test area for global vehicle manufacturers. The 490ha facility includes ice and snow flats, circles and test tracks, all designed to push the cars and drivers to the limits of winter driving.
It is a highly secret facility, a place where the world’s car manufacturers can test discretely away from the public and media’s prying eyes.
To be asked to have first-hand experience is a rare and highly sought-after experience. I felt like a fraud, albeit a very welcome one. It was a strange feeling as we were shuttled to the site at dawn, traversing the formerly metal road to the Cardrona Valley in a Merc, not behind the wheel of a beat-up Valiant as it was in years past. When we pulled into the Proving Grounds, which now takes in the former Snow Park (a haven for snowboarders back in the day), we were greeted by the sight of 29 AMGs, lights blazing as the sun rose over the piste, with each car