NZSKI

Ten Wakatipu children have completed the Step Up programme at Alpine Health & Fitness, the first fully-sponsored health and fitness education programme in Wakatipu for overweight children.

NZSki is targeting locals to fill 500 positions on its skifields for the 2012 ski season.

By tomorrow, NZSki.com expects around 5000 people to have applied for the roughly 450 jobs it will have on its three South Island skifields. Business editor Dene Mackenzie talks to NZSki chief executive James Coddington about recruitment, retention and business goals.

Remarkables and Coronet Peak parent company NZSki has topped last year's record staff retention rate, and 63% of last year's staff will return for the 2012 ski season.

NZSki is confident its offer of free food, accommodation and skiing for children at Mt Hutt will not detract from the number of families visiting Queenstown skifields.

Coronet Peak and Remarkables skifields parent company NZSki is confident 2011 early bird layby sales "exceeding expectations" bodes well for 2012 season passes.

A bigger than expected response to NZSki's early bird pass eight-month payment option has the company predicting healthy season pass sales when they open to residents next month.

NZSKI is having a "consolidation season" of summer developments at Coronet Peak and the Remarkables on the back of a solid four years of new investments.

After struggling through a season fraught with natural disasters, NZSki has reported a surprisingly strong performance, with high hopes for next year if its "stars and planets are aligned".

Hundreds of seasonal workers were treated to a free lunch by NZSki in Queenstown yesterday, culminating in the "world's biggest snow dance" which people desperate for an income hoped would result in a much needed snowfall last night.