Phil has been in the travel industry for the last 10 years in roles varying from trek guiding in Morocco and Nepal to working as a consultant in NZ's biggest corporate agency looking after travel for goverment ministers and trade delegations. Phil has a Commerce degree, an Iata diploma of tourism and travel, Ski patrol qualifications and is also a qualified sailing instructor and race coach. 
Originally from a mountaineering background Phil is a keen telemarker, ski tourer (when his legs hold out) and alpine skiier and spent 3 seasons in France where he managed ski chalets, completed the Haute route and toured extensively through the Haute Savoie region of France.

He has now moved onto discovering the resorts of North America, Canada and Japan where he is enjoying the wide open spaces and lack of lift queues.

Phil has skied most resorts Canada and Colorado. In March 2009 he had one of the best powder days ever in Niseko, Japan and also enjoyed Hakuba and Nozawa Onsen. In March 2010 Phil visited the Mammoth/Tahoe Ski resorts and in 2011 experienced some awesome powder in Park City/Salt Lake City, Utah and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Phil is also a keen diver and after getting his Padi open water in Thailand in 1999 Phil has dived Thailand , Red Sea, Fiji, Australia and all over New Zealand. One of Phils favourite memories was telemarking in thigh deep powder with Al Raine from Sun Peaks 2 weeks after the last snowfall. Trust the locals to find a good spot on the mountain.

• My Ski Trip to Utah / Jackson Hole 2011 Photos »

Customer Testimonials

Andrew from Tauranga

Home safe and sound after a fabulous time in Aspen area. Every expectation realised. Wholehearted recommendation. Thank-you for your organisation. 

Andrew

Sarah from Timaru

Hi Phil, I wanted to thank you for organizing such a wonderful holiday for us. Snowmass was absolutely amazing, 91 runs, great weather and great family town. The accommodation at Tamarack was also fabulous.

Recommendation for the future, don’t take up snow boarding when you are over 40!

Thanks again, Sarah

John from Auckland

Phil: We are back from our trip to LA, NYC, and Sun Peaks. We had a great time. Thank you for your help with this booking, we will definitely look to use your services again in the future.

All the best. John

Sue from Christchurch

Hi Phil, We are back from our trip and now feel like we have never been away.
Everything went well and we had a great time.

The Tamarack apartment was fantastic. We were obviously upgraded as had a 4 bedroom condo rather than the 2 bedroom we were expecting. It had been redecorated at some stage as was very nice.

The skiing was wonderful and all of us enjoyed the size of the mountain and there was definitely skiing for all abilities. We went over to Aspen and Aspen highlands as well which we all enjoyed.

Thank-you for all your help with the bookings. We are saving for the next trip now!!!

Regards, Sue

Hamish

Hi Phil, Thanks. You are a star. Yes both BW and SS are amazing mountains. There were a couple of things that stood out for us in terms of the trip. Firstly the snow.... ohmygod the snow was good. They had a real late start to the season and then it all came at once so we were lucky. But the powder.... ohmygod the powder!

Second was the infrastructure like cafe etc. The signage was another big plus for the mountains. At no point did we feel like we were lost or out of bounds etc. A bonus when we read that 4 people lost their lives at Whistler skiing out of bounds! Plus the chairs are reliable and relatively quick.

Thirdly the accomodation. Especially at BW was sensational. Very cool.
I also feel that going to BW before SS was great because I felt the skiing was much better at SS than BW. The kids also felt the same. Therefore we warmed up on BW and then pushed into it at SS. A challenging terrain, more variety and a lovely small town "feel" were the main reasons. BW felt a little "corporate" than SS.

Thanks again for the Air Canada thing. They were ok except for their tele sales who had us waiting for over an hour to get another flight out of Vancouver. This was after the debacle at the vancouver airport so my patience was ice thin!

Erskine from Hanmer Springs

Hey Phil and Mike - just back from Canada - ski trip was great - Silver Star perfect field for first winter ski experience for us as family. Condo was on ground floor and ski-in ski-out just what we wanted. was really cold first week  minus 18 to minus 23 C most days so great to ski back to unit and warm up during day. Condo also perfect for us - plenty of room, nice and warm plus ski room/porch excellent. not much of a skiier myself but loved the field and skiied all the time - mostly on nearer half of field rather than Powder Gulch area where was bit steep for me and not as much fun. Lot of ice under fresh powder so not as easy to enjoy skiing on steeper runs but my family enjoyed the harder stuff. plus sons enjoyed jump park. had several falls of fresh powder during our ten day stay - brilliant for glade skiing and also had a lot of fun on mountain bike trails that had been converted into slalom type ski runs in and about the trees. actually hard to leave and could have done another week particularly as fresh snow fell night before we left. rental vehicle was excellent - huge GMC Envoy - could lower one of back seats for skis, and roomy for all of us four plus large cases. handled snow covered roads well and no problem getting over to Banff and back. skiied Lake Louise, Sunshine and Kicking Horse, though former two were very icy due to snow blowing away in winds previous week and warm temps. great to explore huge fields though, and enjoyed a lot of Goats Eye at Sunshine. Kicking Horse was quite the best though with huge bowl up at mountain top and long runs - broad snow fields and unbelievable views out over the mountains. Rockies fields were expensive for lift tickets, especially as 18 yr old counted as adult. Kicking Horse better value and would go there again. hear Revelstoke was great and that it had best snow - but did not have time to get there. ice skated on Lake Louise and were there just in time to enjoy ice sculptures before they lost definition due to some melting from a few warm days. Irwins Hotel in Banff gave us good deal on accommodation and was great place to stay in Banff. stayed in couple of stray Super 8's en-route to and back from Rockies to Kelowna. all and all a great trip and can't fault all you had sorted for us. thanks for it all. we might think of doing it again in couple of years. reckon i would spend longer even at Silver Star and then just do a couple of days after that at Revelstoke and Kicking Horse - but obviously best value is to spend extended amount of time at Silver Star in condo with ski-in ski-out lodgings. Must have bumped over my budget but seems to have been pretty good value considering quality of: lodgings, Silver Star field, vehicle, etc. - so might be able to do it again. thanks again guys - hope your own travel plans are going well.

Cheers - Erskine on behalf of Sharon, Daniel and Alex as well.

Anna

Phil Hi there. Geoff and I just got back this am from Whistler and Sun Peaks.Thanks for the excellent trip..no problems any where We had a brilliant time...all worked out very well. Whistler is an exiting place.!!! Glazier Lodge was an excellent place tostay. Unfortunately the locals were all complaining about poor snow conditions...worst in 14 years.There was enough for us.We skiied the 11 days out of 11...5 in Whistler and 6 in Sun Peaks.

Our other day we tried cross country which was great fun..highly recommend in Whistler . Sun Peaks accomadation Nancy Greens Cahility Lodge also excellent.!!

Great to see Vancouver and San Francisco at either end. Only one hiccup was the Visa waiver "business". We did on line here but when going thru USA customs in Canada on way to San Francisco the extremely rude customs officer insisted that we fill in the green form as well...he said the waiver system was still not functioning!!! It gave us only 10 minutes to get to plane...they were waiting for us!!

All good experience.

Take care.
Thanks again.

Regards, Anna