It is winter at Southern Hemisphere! And, yes, it is possible to ski there. You can go now and hit the slopes of the ski resorts in Australia and Newzealand.

Here are some great places to do the snow sports:

Charlotte Pass, Australia

If you really want to escape the cold, though Australia is the place to start. Even at its worst, at Charlotte Pass on May 29, 1994, temperatures only dropped to -9.4 F. Cold enough to curl your toes and tickle your nose, but it hardly seems worthy of the record books. The Snowbird Lodge is among the many fine ski resorts in the area.

Jindabyne, Australia

Jindabyne, about three hours' drive from Canberra, is the New South Wales town closest to the ski

resorts of Thredbo and Perisher Valley in the Snowy Mountains. Jindabyne lies some 60 kilometres west of Cooma.

While the Thredbo Alpine Village in the Snowy Muntains is very much self-contained, with restaurants, shops, small supermarkets, hotels and ski lodges conveniently clustered close to the ski lifts and slopes, there are advantages in staying at Jindabyne winter or summer.

For those with a careful eye on the budget, Jindabyne is also much cheaper. This includes lower accommodation, food, and equipment hire costs.

In winter, it is of course ski season activity that fills Jindabyne, with the town providing relatively cheap accommodation, ski clothing and equipment for hire, restaurants and coffee shops, and snow tours.

In the less crowded summer, visitors have a choice of bushwalks into Kosciuszko National Park; boating, sailing, windsurfing and fishing for trout on Lake Jindabyne; horse riding and bicycle tours; whitewater rafting in the Upper Murray; and leisurely walks by the lake starting from where the statue of Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki, Snowy Mountains explorer, stands.

Queenstown, New Zealand

Anyone who has been to New Zealand knows that Queenstown is the tourist mecca of its SouthIsland. During winter the city is filled with snowboarders and skiers; for the rest of the year, the Bungee-jumping and adventure-travel crowd moves in, so the nightlife is good year round. This postcard-perfect mountain city on a lake is also so charming that you'll want to move there before you even reach the center of town for the first time. You can have a great visit using public transportation, but if you've rented a car or campervan, your possibilities for exploring the area greatly increase. Queenstown is not terribly cheap, but it's not a budget buster either.

Mount Cook, New Zealand

Mount Cook is the highest mountain in the country and a famous sight with its curved peak. Generations of Kiwis have visited the mountain's base, all DOC controlled parks. Sir Edmund Hillary was one brave soul who used Mount Cook as a practice for the big push up Everest. It is set amongst other large mountains, all carved by the many glaciers that have retreated up the valley. You have to drive along Lake Pukaki to reach the park. This lake is huge; its colour is a natural part of its glacial beginnings

Mount Tongariro, New Zealand

Mount Tongariro is actually an entire volcanic complex, located 10 miles southwest of Taupo, and comprised of three active volcanoes dominating the landscape of the central North Island. Its snow caped peeks were visible in the far distance over the Lake Taupo above the shoreline. The park is roughly split into two parts. The main mountain town of Whakapapa is half way into the mountains and the base of the ski fields that sit atop its leading road.

South Island, New Zealand

South Island is almost one giant mountain range, at least that's how it felt driving around it. We went up to Tekapo, at the base of the mountain, through the wilderness of Burke Pass. This leads up to a large beautiful lake surrounded on all sides by mountains and forests. The closest is Mount John. Atop this stands the Earth & Sky Observatory, New Zealand's largest and most impressive.

Sources: bootsnall.com, australia blog.com

Australia