snowmobiling new zealanders do it a little differently during our summer

Like many of his neighbors, Galvin Mulvay from New Zealand spends his winter, June to November, snowmobiling through the mountains. Mulvay started snowmobiling in 2006 to access remote skiing destinations on the southern island of New Zealand.

“The access isn’t as easy as the states because our snow line is at 3000ft,” Mulvay said.

As AmSnow previously reported, last year the country held its first snowmobile hillclimb event in Lake Tekapo. Mulvay attended this event and said there were at least 20 sleds racing. Almost all of the sleds were older Polaris and Ski-Doo models.

“There is a Ski-Doo and a Polaris dealership here, mostly to service the ski-fields. There is a few collections of early snowmobiles around, either privately imported or ex-Antarctica. [These are] mostly used to access the large flat areas of Central Otago where there is some interesting old huts from the gold mining and mustering on horseback era,” Mulvay said.