I'm thinking about escaping the Texas heat in July and have always wanted to go to New Zealand. I don't plan to ski, but packing for a winter trip and staying in nice ski lodges or on snowy mountain lakes sounds good to me. Might also spend a few days in Sydney and Melbourne. Any thoughts on if this a good idea, or is winter too off season and going shoulder season or summer is a better idea?

Winter is not off season in New Zealand, especially around the ski areas like Queenstown.

Thanks…I get that it will still be high season around the ski mountains and Queenstown. I'm more interested in touring the rest of the island and if most of the lodges, activities, etc are still open or does it shut down in the winter.

We were just there in December - January. I would do some research about driving there in the winter. There are not a lot of roads in New Zealand. Many are very windy and narrow. Lots of one lane bridges, tunnels or sometimes just one-lane roads. It required a constant navigator, even in their summer months when we were there. I would not want to drive it in the winter if the roads were compromised at all.

did a road trip in august 2019 around the south island, plenty of places open. biggest worry i had was getting 'stuck' if a landslide or something took out a road. example: on the southern island west coast, highway 6 is the only road. if somewhere on there or haast pass gets blocked, the nearest mountain pass is arthurs pass, 5 hours away. if you're at franz josef and trying to drive to queenstown, your 5 hour drive just doubled to 10

keep an eye on the road conditions/closures, you'll be fine https://www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/highway-conditions/otago

If in Queenstown do the day trip to Milford Sound via plane. You won't regret it.

I recommend taking the bus to Milford Sound and plane/heli back to Queenstown, there are some wonderful stops those bus tours make on the way.