'This is ridiculous': South Island ski slopes kick into gear
You know winter has well and truly arrived when the South Island's commerical ski fields open for another season.
The Remarkables and Coronet Peak near Queenstown, Cardorna Alpine Resort and Mt Hutt in Canterbury all opening the gates to keen ski bunnies — even with limited snow for some.
Steve Hall, in his second season of running The Remarkables, told 1News, "[We] haven't had a lot of natural [snow], but [we] have got some great snowmaking, and you can see our coverage is looking really nice for where we're at."
Just a handful of ski areas were ready for today's opening, but that did not stop people making the trip up on what was a bluebird day in the tourism Mecca.
American tourist, Tyler from New Jersey told 1News: "The snow was awesome... this is ridiculous!"
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His friend, Andy from Seattle said, "it's so worth it, it's nice and dry and the snow guns are going and everyone's super stoked to be here".
Over at Cardrona Alpine Resort, some had been waiting in line since 1am to be the first on chairlift.
Chief mountains officer Laura Hedley said: "We've had a little bit of natural snow but we've just had a massive effort from our snow makers to get us open for today and there's so many people out there having a great time."
The resort had also opened just a few areas on the mountain, with around 150 hectares of new terrain, known as Soho Basin, expected to make a debut later this month.
There was hope for more of the white stuff falling in the next few weeks.
Hall told 1News, "we're always doing snow dances".
"I think if you're in this business, you're an optimist, but you're always doing snow dances," he laughed.
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While mother nature has not delivered a major amount of snow so far in the south, Mt Hutt in Canterbury had so much snow on Friday, when it was due to open, and had to hold off until Saturday.
On top of all the openings, The Remarkables was also celebrating a major milestone — 40 years in business.
A lot had changed over the decades for all of the ski fields, in particular, infrastructure upgrades.
The Remarkables alone have spent more than $90m on new facilities and chairlifts over the past 10 years.
"The base building, the three big high-speed, six-seater chairlifts, which is pretty amazing, it's world class stuff really," said Hall.
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