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Ice castles has taken the United States by storm. And now the spectacular winter exhibit is heading to Coronet Peak in New Zealand.
The attraction, scheduled to open early July, is currently under construction at the ski resort, 15 minutes from Queenstown on the South Island.
Ice Castles is a seasonal entertainment company that creates elaborate, frozen castles each winter in six cities across North America, but this is the company’s first location in the southern hemisphere.
The attractions include ice caves, tunnels, and slides made entirely from ice. Professional ice artisans hand-place 10,000 icicles a day to create the enchanting, interactive castles that are illuminated at night with color-changing LED lights embedded inside the ice.
Ice Castles CEO Ryan Davis says he’s excited by the company’s foray into the southern hemisphere.
“With New Zealand’s winter occurring during North America’s summer, we are able to give more people around the world an inexpensive way to enjoy the outdoors together and freeze time with their families year-round,” Ryan says.
Each ice castle is built by hand and takes thousands of man-hours to create. The daily process consists of growing 5,000 to 12,000 icicles that are harvested by hand and individually sculpted into existing ice formations. Newly placed icicles are then drenched with water. The blend of icicle placement, temperatures, water volume and wind result in an astonishing and ever-changing variety of ice formations.
The concept for Ice Castles was created when founder and Utah resident Brent Christensen attempted to build an ice cave for his daughter in the front yard of his home in Alpine, Utah.
The project turned into a winter hit drawing crowds of locals to visit and tour his creation. Ice Castles has since turned into an internationally renowned tourist attraction with seven locations across North America and now one in New Zealand.
Tickets will be available soon at https://icecastles.com/new-zealand/
Want to know where to ski in New Zealand? Here’s our full run-down of all the NZ ski resorts.
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Travel allows you to get outside your bubble. It makes you realise there are other ways to do things, and that’s OK. Plus, I am a huge fan of skiing and for the best powder – you need to head overseas.