if you think TC's access road is frightening, Ohau's access road when I last went had my adrenal glands exhausted! I've ridden TC, and like to hang out in the Summit Saddle Basin when I go. The front face the last few years has been short of snow when I've been there in August, and the afternoon sun tends to make it slushy. The Basin is colder and generally not as crowded. In the past I've not enjoyed it as much as Cardrona, but that is more a measure of my lack of skill and ability to take full advantage of its slopes. Not been there for a couple of years, as I missed the whole 2013 season with a ruptured Achilles' tendon, and didn't ride there in the short trip I had to Central Otago in the winter of 2014. Cardrona is my current favourite field in Central, and I'll happily ride the Remarkables as well. Coronet Peak has been a serious disappointment the last three times I've been there. Crowded, warm, and slushy lumpy snow from top to bottom. The last time I went it was like riding on glue. With a freshly waxed board I was struggling to get any glide at all, the board was almost stuck to the snow! Overall the NZ season seems to be getting shorter and shorter. I now figure on decent snow being reliably around in Central Otago for perhaps the last week of July, all of August, and maybe the first week of September. For work reasons I have to plan snow trips months in advance.