The Seasons

Spring (1 September to 30 November)
Temperatures vary between C8 degrees to C15 degrees. The weather is very unpredictable in Spring and expect bright sunshine, with rain, cloudy spells and possibly the odd snow shower!! Sounds crazy but if you want to see all the different types of weather you can expect in Queenstown during a year then visit in Spring. While this weather is amazing to see, it can often mean scenic flights and other weather dependent activities are cancelled due to the ever changing weather pattern. We recommend you bring winter and summer clothes and if possible allow a couple of days for the weather dependent activities so that you can re-schedule cancelled trips.

Summer (1 December to 28 February)
Temperatures usually stay around the C20 degrees to C30 degrees. At latitude 45 deg south, we have long summer days; sunrise can be as early as 5am and sunset at around 10pm. Our clear, unpolluted atmosphere and relatively low latitudes produce sunlight stronger than much of Europe or North America, as a result people generally burn quicker than at home, so be prepared to wear hats and sun block if you plan to be out in the sun for more than 15-20 minutes. Most people carry sunfactor 15 to 20 as a minimum sunblock cream.

Autumn (1 March to 30 May)
Temperatures vary between mid C10 degrees to the mid C20 degrees so pack a couple of t-shirts as well as some warm layers. Leaves normally begin to change colour late March, Arrowtown (20 mins drive from Queenstown) is a fantastic place to see the Autumn colours, the oranges and reds of the surrounding trees are almost too rich in colour to believe.

Winter (1 June to 31 August)
Temperatures rarely get higher than C7 or C8 degrees and can often fall well below zero. Dress warmly, lots of layers. Fleeces and thick puffer jackets are the popular choice of clothing for winter. The ski fields can open as early as the first week in June (Coronet Peak ski field). However some years due to the lack of snow they may postpone the opening for a week or 2 until there is enough snow. This year there has been a lot of improvements to the ski fields, new chair lifts, new additions to the terrain parks and lots of new, bigger and better snow making machines. So even if there isn't snow as long as the temperatures a low enough then they have the power to make snow! The season usually runs through till the second half of October.