English speaking locals, powder in August on South Facing slopes, it could only be New Zealand.

The minibus lurched violently as the sealed tarmac road gave way to a cart track. Bouncing alongside of us a BMW was throwing caution to the wind, the driver forcing the vehicle up onto the grass embankment in order to make it past us.

"Powder fever", yelled our driver. "Three feet of freshies overnight does that to the locals."

We were on a classic unsealed Kiwi road winding our way around Lake Wanaka in the Southern Lakes region of New Zealand's South Island. Heading as fast as the road would allow towards Treble Cone ski area. When the road tilted skywards our bus began a steady climb on a switchbacking road covered in snow and frozen mud. Occasionally a deceased cow could be spotted among the boulders on the mountainside where they had climbed up and slid to their doom on the steep flanks.

Treble Cone had been closed the day before due to heavy snowfall restricting me to lakeside walks in a torrential downpour, but today the radio was calling for nearly a metre at the summit and any hardcore skier or border was making a headlong dash for the lifts.

By European standards Treble Cone is rather insignificant, even so the whole front face and its flanks are superb rolling terrain for powder junkies to carve their own personal graffiti into.With this much snow the Ski Patrol had their work cut out with control work on the wide powder faces of the 'Powder Bowl' and 'Saddle Basin', the two most highly prized runs on the mountain. First tracks down either of these two would ensure top bragging marks for the winners.

By 11AM a long line of skiers and boarders were salivating at the control rope, waiting for the Saddle traverse to open. When the ski patrol finally pulled back the ropes 60 or so sliders went headlong into the first corner like a pack of formula one cars hitting the first bend from the grid. The inevitable result was an entangled collection of arms and legs. I hopped over the side before reaching the congestion and began arcing turns into the new powder canvas of Powder bowl along with a snowboarder who immediately accelerated away from me making two turns to my twenty, A curtain of snow obliterated the captivating sight of Lake Wanaka and its many peninsulas but I was more content within the walls of my own ëwhite roomí. Sadly after only ten minutes too many skis and snowboards had scoured the face of Powderbowl and it now looked like a badly-decorated artex ceiling.

The Remarkables range is located one hours drive from Queenstown. It is an area that lacks pisted runs but not excitement with its collection of the finest in-bound steeps in the Southern Hemisphere. From the shadow-basin chairlift black runs take a rather direct route down the mountain and so will you if you fall . The terrain is a mixture of open faces, chutes and couloirs. A model steep run is the Hourglass chute, as the name would denote it becomes rather narrow at places with one or two turns requiring perfect steep-technique and solid edge-sets before youíre through the granite alley and the danger passes.

If a single run alone is worth the trip to New Zealand then the Homeward Bound face is it. Once the reserve of heli-skiers the face is a Grandiose bluff achievable by anyone with a basic technique and a thirst for adventure. It lies away from the main ski area but with easy access and no hiking involved. You can quickly find yourself overlooking a gargantuan-smooth face that fortifies the essence of skiing and the freedom that it allows. Take a deep breath a push off into a series of arcs building pressure under the skis that propel you into the next turn. A slope with no markers, patrol or rules, its North-West orientation makes it perfect for spring snow conditions during August and September. Over 100 turns later you are funneled down through a series of gullies that are as narrow as the top is wide to where the exit deposits you onto the access road below the lift system.

Here those kind people from the lift office have laid on a shuttle service to pick up skiers and take them back to the base. Across the valley lies Queenstown's other skiing area of Coronet Peak and with it New Zealand's elite piste skiing area. Coronet Peak is the place to take a break from the steeps and powder and get a little cruising under your belt.

Queenstown is the hub of the South Islandís heli-ski operations. The Southern Alps that almost straddles the South Island are the terrain that Powderhounds spend the summer dreaming about. Unlike many mountain ranges where the snow can deteriorate the moment it touches the ground. Here the hard frosts wick away the moisture after the snow has fallen making it lighter and fluffier.

Looking out of my Queenstown hotel room at the snow falling down on the surface of Lake Whakatipu meant that the choppers would be grounded and I'd have to seek excitement elsewhere. Fortunately, Queenstown promotes itself as the adrenaline capital of the universe so I booked onto a trip on the Shotover jet and a white-water rafting adventure.

Travelling North to the ski fields that rise out of the Canterbury plains you pass close to the Majestic Mount Cook or the Mauri name of Aoraki that translates to Cloud Piercer . From the tiny airport at the base of the mountain helicopters and planes lift off towards the Tasman glacier and powder runs in excess of 10 to 12 kms that filter down through spectacular glaciated scenery on a scale comparable to the Himalayas. Once again I was shut out by the weather, but then if youíre going to ski in a place where they receive on average over one hundred meters of snow a year you have to expect sunshine to be a rare commodity.

Mount Hutt is usually the first New Zealand ski resort to open and the last to close, thanks to an outstanding snow record. Here the season goes through from May to October, making it a haven for national teams to come and train during the Northern Hemisphere summer. When I headed up the mountain both the Italians and Indians were busing training for the coming season and the winter Olympics.

The Italians were apparently complaining about the food and the Indians were ecstatic that they had the facilities of lifts and didnít have to walk up thehill. The search for powder stopped here because of three previous daysof wind that had blown away any snowflakes into drifts giving varied conditions on piste. Montezumaís ridge had collected the majority of the drifts so we spent most of the morning cutting glorious arcs into the windblown surface. Below us were the flatlands of the Canterbury plains and in the distance the Pacific Ocean was a grey-blue hue.

Around the car park were a group of Kea Birds. The worlds only Alpine Parrot that is indigenous to the South Island of New Zealand. These hysterical creatures are a menace to all car owners. Their favorite trick is to pick away the rubber seal around a car window screen so the glass falls out then finishing with a desert of windscreen wipers, BMWs I believe are their favorite treat and I watched in fascination as one tried to eat a snow cannon.

There is one facet of skiing that New Zealand well and truly owns itís the club fields. The main focuses of these uncommercialised ski areas are found around an hours drive from Christchurch. Raw and untamed they are rarely groomed and the most luxurious lifts they have are T-bars. Their usual mode of uphill transport is a rope tow that youíre joined by a device named as a nutcracker , after some use I wondered if it wasn't invented during the Spanish Inquisition.

For all their roughness the club fields are the meet and veg to local hardcore skiers with cheap lift tickets, heli-ski terrain at a faction of the cost and weekday skier numbers hardly reaching the half-century mark. Craigeburn is one such area, left ungroomed for powder adventures itís an extreme playground of open faces and tight chutes. Its most famous patron is the mohicaned Glen Plake who makes an annual pilgrimage here to ski the gullies of the middle basin for various equipment and clothing photo opportunities.

Kevin Wolff was a guest of the New Zealand Tourist Board (Tel: 0839 300 900 web site http://www.nztb.govt.nz) and flew with Air New Zealand to Christchurch ( tel: 0500 444 747)