Trip Report: Canterbury Club Fields, NZ

We also found a highly recommended way to navigate the various club fields: Black Diamond Safaris guiding service.

We went out with Brett and Duane (who goes by “Sloppy” – nobody actually calls him Duane), on a snowy, very low visibility day at Craigieburn and Broken River. We couldn’t see, and we would have been clueless about where to head.

But Brett has skied the club fields his entire life and now guides there seven days a week. The club fields are his back yard, and we had a phenomenal day being led through terrain we would have never figured out on our own. Without him, we would have probably just hung out in the lodge.

We spent Friday and Saturday night at the club house at Craigieburn, which is outstanding on so many levels. To stay here is to experience a very genuine slice of skiing history.

Not a whole lot has changed at Craigieburn since it got its start in 1949. Back then there was only one tow rope and dedicated skiers—who’d made the 60-mile pilgrimage from Christchurch over gravel roads—would hike more than an hour to reach the field. All this in old school leather ski boots with Kerosene for the lift strapped to their packs.

Now there’s a road (built in ’61), that takes you right to the ski area and the Koroheke club house, which has 13 rooms, a dining area, a kitchen, and a bar.

But after skiing, we’d come back to the club house, get out of our ski boots, and have a beer with some of the club members in the boiler room.

Eventually we’d make our way to the upstairs bar, hanging out with old-timers like grumpy Dave (who’s “only” been skiing Craigieburn since 1978, and who only ever skis at Craigieburn), and getting to know new friends who have discovered Canterbury more recently.

Breakfast and dinner are served at the club house, and everyone staying there is assigned a daily chore—from helping out with cleanup after meals, to vacuuming the dormitory rooms. The chores aren’t time consuming, but they are great reminders to new visitors that these club fields depend upon everyone pitching in. It’s not done to be quaint, it’s done to actually keep the clubs up and running.

Finally, we’ve got to talk about the Kea. Hang around the dining room at Craigieburn, and there’s a good chance you’ll see one or two of these guys.

Kea are a large species of parrot, and the world’s only alpine parrot. They are endemic to New Zealand, and they are highly intelligent and highly curious birds. They are also trouble makers, which is hilarious—unless it’s your booze (or your car), they’re messing with.

Highly intelligent, basically fearless, often irreverent, deeply resourceful, perpetual problem solvers. We haven’t been in Canterbury, New Zealand all that long, but we’ve gotten to know enough of the people around here to say that the Kea and the Cantabrians have a whole lot in common.

There is already so much more to report. But we’re going skiing.

Stay tuned for more, and start figuring out when you’re going to get down here.