AS Meredith Chittock (right), 10, screams down Cardrona on a toboggan, Queenstown’s Nicola Heath (right, below) gets wiped out by Dunedin kids Ethan Ball, 8, (left) and Gian Clark, 13.

It was all part of the fun last Sunday for Heath, a Westpac banking consultant who was one of 60 Westpac volunteers that hosted 60 children with disabilities and their caregivers for a day of fun at the Snowscapade event.

“I don’t know who had the most fun – the children or the volunteers,” Heath says.

Free family fun

Everyone loves free stuff – so there should be plenty of people heading up to The Remarkables this weekend for its spring carnival. For three days starting this Saturday, family fun will be on the house, with plenty of free activities, competitions and prizes. There’s a pond skim on Saturday and a downhill dummy race on Sunday offering cash prizes and grocery vouchers, plus free treasure hunts, tubing, skidoo rides, face painting and lolly scrambles each day. Bus transport up the hill is also free – departing from the Queenstown Snow Centre. The carnival ends on Monday with gravity-defying freestyle moto-cross displays throughout the day.

Onya, Australia

It’s official – we’ve had an Aussie invasion this winter. More than 250,000 Australians crossed the ditch to New Zealand during June, July and August – up 30, 918 for the same period last year, according to the NZ Ski Tourism Marketing Network and Tourism NZ. In the Queenstown Lakes area, international visitor guest nights were up 9.8 per cent in July. An on-mountain survey led by Ski Areas Association of NZ shows the majority of Australians holidayed in NZ for either seven-eight days or 10-14 days.

Mitchey Greig (ski cross) and Taylor Rapley (ski racing) are NZ skiing reps. Mitchey (mitchey.com) is sponsored by Head, Pulse Fitness, Scott, The North Face, Coronet Peak and Outside Sports. Taylor is sponsored by Volkl, Under Armour, POC, Pulse Fitness, Outside Sports and Coronet Peak