I'm looking at going boarding winter 08 and was after some ideas. I've been to Austra, Switzerland, France before, but I'm going June/July which is their summer so it will have to be southern hemisphere. Was thinking South America, but its a huge flight. So it really leaves Oz & NZ. Don't know much about either country as far as snowboarding is concerned. I've seen a couple of piste maps for Thredbo and it looked pretty average. Has anyone been in Oz and/or NZ? I'm looking for somewhere that has preferably a park, on piste accomodation & longish runs.
A mate of mine went to India last year reckoned it was f'n awsome.Can't remember the name of the place so i guess do some googleing
Go to Dubai
Ski Dubai in the morning then Wild Wadi in the arvo
Runs a bit short there though 
Just go to Mt Hotham. Wickedest place. Huge variety in runs, good chair lift system, and they usually hve the most snow out of the victorian mountains. NZ is no better than australia except they have heli-skiing. We have longer runs, averagly deeper snow, more chair lifts etc etc.
Falls Creek has a couple of parks, with a bus to jump and that sorta stuff, but all the runs are on the other side of the mountain to the accomodation, so you have to ski (i had to walk as there was not enough snow last year) to a chair lift, and go over the top. And then it is further still to the park.
Hotham has some very wicked fun runs. Can start at the very top of the mountina (its green, but can be fast) and go all the way into a valley via more difficult runs. I think tey have a park, but didnt look when i was there. Also, some places at hotham, you go out your door, put your board on, and off you go down a run.
Never been to new zealand, dont plan on going to snowboard after reading an article comparing our snow conditions, run lengths, number of runs, chair lifts, accomodation, and all that stuff, and we came out on top apart from heli-skiing (which would be mad fun)
I have only been to Falls and Hotham, but i think they were both pretty neat .
Perisher. It is massive, very popular with boarders.
Grading of Runs Beginner 22%
Intermediate 60%
Advanced 18%
Skiable Area* 1,245ha / 12.45sq kms / 3,076acres
Vertical Metres Skiable** 355m / 1,165ft
Longest Run Approx. 3 kms
Halfpipe*** 1 Superpipe
Terrain Parks 4
Night Skiing and Boarding Tuesday and Saturday evenings.
After Switzerland, etc... you will be sorely disappointed by Thredbo.
The worst is when it starts raining.
Yes it rains over east occasioonally. Last year wsa terrible. And when theere is no snow they use the snow making machines , which are crap, as all they do is make sleet (frozen rain stuff).
Rain is terrible, you get soaked, nd then cold, and the snow turns to ****. Hope you pick a good season next year.
Try Charlotte Pass. We had an excellent snow season last year. Its the highest resort and they are planning some board parks for next year. I can't remember any rain, just a lot of snow and there are some excellent runs for the boarders off piste, through the trees, climb the mountains and board down.
for opinionated bias, check out:
www.ski.com.au/xf/
it'll soon turn into a holy war (thredbo/perisher, ford/holden, mac/pc...)
Buller all the way, so what they get millions of multi-cultural day trippers, ice, rain and big lift lines but they have the HOO-HAA.
I did Queenstown a few moons ago ( it was cheaper for two weeks in NZ than any Oz slopes with so many packages on offer )
the bad thing about NZ ( queenstown ) is they have no trees to protect the slopes from the wind so there is more chance you will be blown out unlike buller who will run you up the lift getting blown horizontal, but thats alright cause then you can go bungee jumping, motorbike riding, para gliding, luging etc in queenstown.
park you say - mission to SNOWPARK in NZ if you want park then back to the remarkables, treble cone, Coronet Peak for heli skiing some pow ( southern hem pow )
After working at buller for many seasons as a snowboard instructor i have watched people burn thousands of dollars just to cop a week of rain and wind, some people get lucky and get a week of sunshine and 10cm of fresh - so have a good back up plan - it is a weather Dependant sport after all
go perisher blue or nz or better yet bank the $1000plus and get yourself an extra 5 days in some pow pow thats if you can hang on till next December
P.S June is normally pretty earlier on in the oz season try and aim for late july / early august maybe
Think I may either go to Chilie in jun/jul or wait and go to Whistler in Dec. Don't fancy rain n ice. 
Does this look like rain and ice?
The moon will be turned into blood
The only road in - 8 kms takes 20 to 60 minutes
The Chalet, early August, plenty of snow
Looking over to the back country near Mt Kosciusko
I'm sure u get conditions like that, but I don't want to risk going somewhere that has the possibility where it could rain. I'd prefer to stay home than risk bad/average conditions or pay more and fly somewhere where it's virtually guaranteed. Also from what I gather it's mostly hills in Australia rather than mountains. I'm not bagging the resorts in Oz, but after boarding some of the best spots in Europe I'm a bit fussy about where I go. Oz (and NZ) both sound a bit hit and miss with the snow conditions. It all depends what you want really. I went boarding in Scotland in 05 and they had awesome conditions. My mate loved it, I hated it. It was windy, really short runs, like longest was 2km and T-bars galore. There's more to boarding than just decent powder.
I have been to NZ for the last three years and for a good snow park option you have snowpark, treble cone and cardrona and the only on piste accomadation is at cardrona .
For the best ski field I would suggest treble cone as it has a lot of natural shutes/halfpipes that run down the valleys and if you got some extra cash you can do some helli drops starting from about the 700 bucks for 4/5 drops through to 1000 bucks for a full day helli drops approx 9/10 runs with lunch supplied on a mountain top and the pilot carves out a table and seat in the snow for all to sit around.These runs take a long time to get to the pick up point with 3/4 stops along the way to relax the mussels from turning to gelly and the best of all is every run is fresh powder so make sure you have the right equipment and the stance to the rear of board or you will be doing cartwheels all day long and not enjoying it
I second Treble Cone. Can't beat it in Aus and NZ for terrain. You can't stay on the field, but Wanaka is a great place to be based. Get a cheap rental car and skiing holiday combination deal. Fly into Christchurch and spend a day or two at Mt Hutt first, then drive to Wanaka (4-5 hours). driving up the ski field road is half the fun - don't let the tall stories put you off.
NZ gets variable snow conditions too - but ultimatley you can get naff days even at Whistler or Snowmass and lets face it Europe can be pretty patchy too if you are unlucky.
