The South Island town offers plenty to its visitors all year round, and as awesome as their (underrated) leaning tower is, it’s the picturesque mountains and lakes of Wanaka that have Aussies hopping over the Tasman every year. The winter months have snow enthusiasts basking in all of the white they can handle, and this year we decided to pack some furry headwear and head over ourselves.
On a trip like this, it kinda helps when you have some of the country’s best slope-style snowboarders in your company, so we called up Oakley and Burton athlete Carlos Garcia Knight (also a pretty neat photographer) and Jackson Wells (and his infamous all white outfits) to come along to the nearby Cardrona to show us why they’re held in such high regard.
With the adrenaline still flowing freely, we then switched boards and jumped into a skate session with Jay Smith and Lyon Farrell, who all showed that they can still pull off a few tricks, no matter the discipline. See the boys on Wanaka’s faultless terrain below: