WHAT’S NOT TO ADORE
Tina Moore isinher element in Queenstown.
If you’re a fan of champagne, food, fashion and alpine adventures (and let’s face it, who isn’t), Queenstown’s annual Clicquot in the Snow is an absolute must-do. It has become a regular fixture on the winter social calendar, with people coming from all over the country to paint the town yellow.
When the opportunity to cover the four-day alpine champagne festival, it was a no-brainer. I am an adventurous alpine skier (tick), love great food and champagne (tick, tick), adore Queenstown (tick) and I’m a selfconfessed fashion addict (tick).
Day one kicked off with the Snow Shoe Clicquot Experience at Snow Farm. In the snow-covered hills of the Southern Alps, we trekked a few easy kilometres through pristine powder to the Meadow Hut, where we were treated to a grazing platter and, of course, the first of the many glasses of Veuve Clicquot that I was to enjoy over the coming days. I also learned the art of “sabrage” — a technique for opening a champagne bottle with a saber, which feels super lavish and certainly sets the scene for a celebration.
The snowshoeing plus the super-early start (7am flight out of Auckland) called for an early night. We had to be fresh for a 6am wake-up call.
It was still pitch black when the alarm went off but excitement levels were high as I dosed up on caffeine and prepared for First
Tracks at Coronet Peak.
We arrived at base just in time for the first lift at 8am, and we enjoyed uninterrupted access to the fresh-groomed tracks until 9am, when the mountain opens to everyone else without a First Tracks pass. It’s absolutely worth the early wake-up to have the mountain to yourself, with the beautiful views and sunrise over the valley below. We’d had so many runs in by the time the masses arrived on the slopes that we had to