Hi there! I'm the President, Chief Pilot, CFI of High Alpine Air. Thanks for the endorsement lostav8r! I happen to agree with you!
I completed a bunch of my training many years ago in Victoria, where I flew as a medevac pilot for several years before moving out here to Utopia! No doubt, VFC runs a great show. Benefits here at High Alpine include training by actual working pilots, an absolutely spectacular environment, float flying, mountain courses, walk to town, and our 'Mountain Flying Holidays' partnership which gives you and your family (?) access to the adventures offered by other local tour operators. Send the family sailing or kayaking for the day while we go flying if they're not so keen to join us. Take a look at the website. Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
As far as the weather goes, Big Pistons is partly right. Weather is extremely variable through the winter. Part of the challenge with flying in mountainous terrain. However, we don't get anywhere near the same number of overcast, rainy, typically English Wx days here as we did on the coast. When the sun does shine here, the flying is absolutely outstanding: light singles really like the cold temps!! Things really start to turn around in March, and the floatplane will be in the water beginning of April.
Once again, any questions, don't hesitate to drop me a line.