mount pakenham

This is a great learner hill. It has lots of different hills to start on and its not intimidating. This is a small hill though for a seasoned skier. It has night skiing and that's great! Its a really night after work thing if you live close, and a really good hill for you to take a young family or go as a couple and learn.

Great place for the whole family to learn to ski or snowboard. Helpful staff for rentals. Excellent instructors and staff. Lovely lodge to warm up, rest and stow your belongings.

My son and I learned to snowboard there. The instructors were great (we had ~4-5 different instructors throughout all the private lessons we took) and I have to say that the employees are great to. They seem to all enjoy working there, I'm not sure why but it's something that I noticed and usually never notice stuff like this! The facilities are ok, line-ups are not too bad, the hill is small but location is convenient if you live in the west-end. Less driving, more ski / snowboard. I'm buying season passes for this year and registering my son in their clifford racing program. In a few years (maybe next?), we'll definitely get passes to a taller mountain but I'll head back to Pakenha, in 2-3 years once my youngest is ready to learn snowboarding too! Other note: The resort is super family oriented. When my kids will be older and I won't go snowboarding with them, that's definitely one place I wouldn't hesitate to go drop them off for the day.