Sounds like fun, I might be over to do some snowboarding in the next couple of months :)
I got a reet grilling from immigration when I arrived back in NZ at Christchurch airport; it took about twenty minutes to convince them that I'm a fine, upstanding member of the community. Don't they know that us Brits own New Zealand so we're able to come and go as we please? It sounds like I got out of Thailand at the right time though.
Jayne - Queenstown is an amazing place in winter and you can get good deals on direct flights from Sydney and Melbourne. The Winter Festival is on at the end of June which is always a good week.
I'm away back to the home land at the end of June so more likely to be August, got a friend to visit in Wanaka so will try combine with some boarding