PARTNER CONTENT
If you’re a car enthusiast, thrill seeker, or travel addict you’ll want to tick this one off your bucket list.
It’s the ultimate alpine automotive adventure guaranteed to rival any theme park ride you’ve experienced, only this time you’re in the driver’s seat.
After a hiatus of five years, BMW’s coveted Snow and Ice Experience is back in full swing at New Zealand’s idyllic Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground perched high above stunning Queenstown.
Affectionally known as the Snow Farm, it’s a winter wonderland for adults where you get to go sideways in some of BMW’s most powerful cars with absolute impunity.
There are no speed limits up there on the snow and ice, but chances are you won’t be going all that fast. Instead, you’ll spend most of your time behind the wheel of an M3 or even M3 Touring – in a four-wheel slide not unlike those you might have seen in the Fast & Furious franchise.
Not only is it immense fun from the moment you send an M3 into a proper drift, but your confidence behind the wheel starts to soar due to expert instruction from a team of instructors with a gift for removing fears you might have had about driving high-powered BMWs on the snow.
That’s the promise once you commit to one of two packages offered by BMW Australia, starting with the entry-level Premium Package from $4450 per person along with the all-inclusive Luxury Package at $6500 per person.
While the Premium Package is a full-day event with bus transfers to and from the world-renowned Millbrook Resort, the Luxury Package featured here, adds two nights of accommodation and breakfast at the five-star resort along with a helicopter transfer to the snow.
Attendees are required to book their own return flights but both packages cover insurance and include a very cool BMW M winter jacket in your chosen size.
Qantas and Air New Zealand offer regularly scheduled flights from Sydney or Melbourne to the spectacular Queenstown airport with a decent hot meal and beer and wine included in economy class fares.
Customs is generally quick and easy after which time you’ll be met by BMW representatives who will whisk you away for a transfer en route to the picturesque Millbrook Resort for a couple of nights of luxury accommodation complete with a fireplace and full underfloor heating and amenities.
The resort itself is built around a world-class 18-hole golf course complete with fishponds and quaint bridges, along with a top-notch pro shop and café/restaurant offering creative fare, plenty of warmth and a wide array of beverages to suit all ages.
There’s a fine-dining restaurant close by reception too, or guests can head over the hill only minutes by car into the delightfully charming gold-rush village of Arrowtown, where you’ll find a variety of excellent cafes and restaurants.
Further down the road is the spectacular Queenstown, which offers world-class shopping and dining for any budget.
Do yourself a favour and get an early-ish night before your actual BMW M Snow and Ice Experience drive day. It’s a full-on schedule packed with a host of driving events designed to build you up to the art of drifting in BMW’s most powerful road cars.
The venue itself can be bitterly cold with some serious wind chill factor, but once you’re introduced to the team of instructors, it’s into the warm surrounds of the chalet for barista-made coffee as well as some of the best canapés I’ve had in years.
You’ll want to try anything and everything that comes out of chef Andy Crowe’s kitchen. Innovative and delicious is my take on this wonderful guitar-playing chef. He was originally from Cambridge, England before he got hooked on New Zealand.
Before braving the elements and heading back out onto the snow in your chosen groups and vehicles you’ll need to sit through a wonderfully informative presentation by chief instructor Gavin… who is also a renowned stunt driver and former instructor at the Porsche Experience Centre in Los Angeles.
There’s a lot to take in from the preferred driving position and how best to hold the steering wheel for maximum control, to how to actually control a slide in the snow or ice. It’s best to pay attention here, as it will definitely give you an edge out on the snow.
Spare a thought for the team that works all night making snow (if needed) and carefully grooming the snow fields which are perfectly smooth for the day’s driving.
While there are at least five activities throughout the day, we kicked off with a slalom course combined with a gentle drift opportunity – if only to get a feel of the car in all-wheel drive mode before turning off most of the electronic nannies in rear-wheel drive.
The cars on hand ranged from an M3 sedan to an X3 M40i. After just two or three goes (you share a car), in all three models your skill levels are already significantly higher than when you arrived. It’s immensely satisfying and there’s lots of empathy and encouragement from the instructor team every step of the way.
Next on the agenda for our group was a short convoy in our chosen M cars to a flat oval for proper, full-circle drifting. Only after everyone had mastered a routine small-radius drift move before graduation to the big league oval course.
While every vehicle is allocated a two-way radio for instructions on the move, those who need a tad more help get an instructor in the passenger seat for what is effectively one-on-one drift coaching. The results are eye-opening even after a few minutes.
I’ll use my driving partner as the example here. He was perhaps a little too eager with the throttle and steering inputs which caused him to lose control and spin out persistently. But after only five minutes of in-car instruction he was holding a drift through two corners at least. He was so happy with himself.
Up next was more fine fare from chef Andy Crowe with a range hot and cold beverages over lunch. But there were still at least three more driving exercises to enjoy – including drag races, a timed lap with prizes, and the grand finale; a properly quick hot lap in an M3, which is performed mostly sideways.
It’s huge fun even sitting in the back seat but especially to witness such a high level of driving skill on a very slippery surface so expertly performed.
While the carefully curated programme at the Snow Farm packs a lot into a single day, it never feels rushed or intimidating thanks to the driving instructor team and the patience displayed with every attendee.
If you’re like me you’ll want to head back for another crack almost immediately, or any other BMW driving event location throughout the world, if only to capitalise on those new skills you’ve gained.
While the BMW M Snow and Ice Experience in New Zealand offers a unique experience unlike any other thanks to its idyllic location alone, BMW also offers plenty of other exclusive driver programs all around the globe.
These include the BMW M Drift Academy, BMW M Track Days, and Race Track Experience to name but a few. At the end of the day you get to have fun behind the wheel and upgrade your skillset at the same time. It’s immensely satisfying.
For more information head to the BMW Australia website.
