So, it’s winter and you have two options – you can either bitch about it, or you can embrace it. If you’re up for the latter, then there’s no better way to celebrate than by heading off to the snow with a bunch of your mates.
When it comes to gays and snow, there’s no bigger event in the southern hemisphere than the 42BELOW’s Gay Ski Week NZ. From 1 – 9 September gay guys and girls from all over the world will head to gorgeous Queenstown in New Zealand for a week long festival of on and off mountain activities, including everything from downhill ski races for the adrenalin junkies, to wine tasting for the more leisurely – and of course, the hot, gay parties.
Mike Sanford, the man behind the event, is thrilled with how things are shaping up. “We’re in our fifth year and it’s really exciting. Already we’ve got a really big group booked at the main hotel – the Crowne Plaza. We’ve sold about 47 rooms so far, which amounts to about 80 people roughly. Across the week we usually get about 450 to 500 people all up.”
Queenstown is an exhilarating, all year round, alpine resort, perfect for adventurers and leisure seekers alike. Nestled on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, overlooked by the majestic Southern Alps, the town got its name because it was fit for a queen – Queen Victoria to be precise. Ironic now that it annually plays host to hundreds of them, from all corners of the globe.
“So far we’ve got some bookings from China, Brazil, the States – and of course plenty of Aussies and New Zealanders. The great thing about Gay Ski Week is that we take a town with a name like Queenstown, a town that has no gay venues whatsoever, and we make it gay for a week. Any other time of the year there’s nothing like that there – no gay saunas, no gay bars, no gay nothing.”
Mike’s definitely noticed that people who’ve been before tend to return. It’s all about the camaraderie, the bonding. “We just love the friends we’ve made and it’s great to see the repeat business. We’ve heard some great stories from people – there’s a couple of Sydney guys who said that their new best friends live just down the road from them but they had to go to Gay Ski Week to meet them.”
But what about the ladies? Does Gay Ski Week cater for the lesbians too? “We always get emails from people asking, ‘are there girls coming?’ We’ve found that it’s about a 90 / 10 ratio of boys to girls. We do get some really fun, crazy lesbians though – one year we had to stop to take photos of some girls who were car surfing on the top of their rental cars. That’s what we find – they’re there in smaller numbers, but they’re really fun girls, so it’s all good.”
This year, the skiing conditions in Queenstown are the best they’ve been in years, so if you’re a serious skier you’re in for a treat. “It’s colder this year,” says Mike. “That means better snow, a lot more ice – a good ski season.”
Of course, you don’t have to be a great skier to kick up your heels. Infact, you don’t really have to ski at all. There’s some truth in the cliché that some people go to the snow just to sit in the bar. That being said, there’s plenty more to do off the slopes, you can go skydiving, sightseeing, wine tasting, partying – and given that gay civil unions are legal in New Zealand, you can even get hitched if you like.
“This year a lot more are seen to be coming for the parties but they’re not doing much of the skiing stuff,” says Mike. “Some are doing two days of skiing, and then spending the rest of their time sightseeing. The bulk of people who do come do so for the whole week. There are some who come just for the weekends, either at the beginning or the end, because that’s when the parties are on. The weekends tend to attract a lot of New Zealanders as well.”
Air New Zealand are offering 15% off all airfares for Gay Ski Week from Australia. You can also win your way to Gay Ski Week too just by hitting the vodka. Buy a drink with 42BELOW vodka in it at The Columbian, Stonewall, The Midnight Shift and Slide and you’ll automatically get an entry form that puts you in the running to win 8 nights accommodation, dinner for 2 at ThreeSixty Restaurant, return flights for 2 as well as tickets to all events. We like the sound of that.
Sounds like Gay Ski Week has something for everybody. And as they promise on their website – Queenstown, with its street names like Camp, Mann and Shotover, will soon have you feeling right at home.
Nice.
Gay Ski Week runs from 1 – 9 September, 2007. For more information head to their website.
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