Skiing and snowboarding are not the only ways to enjoy winter snow in Central Otago.
Using snowshoes so they can cruise across soft snow, walkers can also burn up plenty of calories doing something which Peter Hitchman of Guided Snowshoe Walks said is "just an extension of walking".
Walkers wear specially designed metal and plastic "shoes" which are fitted over a normal shoe and spread a person's weight across the snow, helping to prevent them from sinking.
When Mr Hitchman and wife Karyn added the winter exercise to their guided walk business they were originally told "nobody comes to Queenstown in the winter to walk".
Evidently both tourists and locals thought otherwise, as the sport is growing in popularity in Queenstown since it was added in 2009.
"We get an awful lot of people who come to Queenstown and they don't want to ski or board, so they go snowshoeing." Mr Hitchman said he had heard, before exposing Queenstown to the sport, of an "us and them" mentality between skiers and non-skiers at local visitor accommodation, but now the snowshoers had "become part of the skiing fraternity".
The youngest person Mr Hitchman has taken snowshoeing was aged 6 and the oldest 94, proving the sport was not exclusive regarding fitness and ability, he said.
"I took Tiger Woods' divorce lawyer out last year."
"You don't really know who they are until you spend half a day with them."
Mr Hitchman escorted snowshoers on trails in Queenstown's back country, some of which border the Remarkables ski area.
It was important to point out independent snowshoers needed to be avalanche-aware, he said.
Snowshoes are available for hire at some snow rental shops and available for purchase at outdoor shops.
Another activity snow-enthusiasts can enjoy without skis or a board is snow tubing, in which thrill-seekers race down a slope on a giant tube.
Remarkables ski area manager Ross Lawrence said tubing was "just something else for people to get involved in" on the snow.
"It's something whole families can do."
He said tubers rode a chairlift to the tubing park at the Remarkables, where they were taken up a slope by a handle tow lift to begin their descent on a tube.
"The rest is just great fun. You can lie in them, or you can sit in them and you can race someone in the lane next to you."
A flat area of snow and a snow bank made for a safe landing and the four lanes varied in speed.
