The start of Cardrona skifield pioneers John and Mary Lee's 30th snow season has reportedly been touch and go.
But here they are, back on Mt Pisa after a rare summer sojourn in Wanaka.
Daughter Jo, a mother of three children under 4, is also back after taking several years off to have babies.
Son Sam is still managing Snow Park operations with the same perennial enthusiasm as his entrepreneurial father.
Only Dunedin-based older daughter Rachel is working elsewhere this year.
If the future looks dire - and over coffee and cheese sandwiches, the family assures me it is not - the Lees do not appear to be a family in crisis.
Instead, they are laughing about Sam's "bare essentials" marketing campaign and the amount of clothing he would be prepared to wear in a photo.
Like others, the Lees have been hit by the economic downturn that is encouraging northern hemisphere skiers and snowboarders to stay at home.
John did not expect the recession not to bite and is pleased for his former shareholders' sakes they have sold what many regarded as the family's cash cow, the Snow Farm vehicle proving ground.
Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground Ltd bought the business in 2005, in a deal reportedly worth more than $20 million, which John says went mostly to shareholders and into the Snow Park.
The Lees still own the land, as well as the Snow Farm cross-country ski operations and Snow Park terrain park.
"Age was getting to be an issue and the shareholders went with good money.
"Now, it's back to family and we would like a partner or a sale [of the remaining businesses and land]," John (73) said.
"We are realigning. The recession is an opportunity to reinvent the business. We have started again with the Snow Park, gone back to scratch. Knowing everything we now know, we are re-evaluating," Sam said.
Some newspapers have homed in recently on the Lees' reported $5 million debt.
Others have highlighted an unexpected submission to John's traditional adversary, the Queenstown Lakes District Council, to buy a parcel of Waiorau Station to protect cross-country trails for ever.
John's amiability, rather than a strong desire to confess his financial situation to the world, seems the main reason his wife and children now find themselves battling public perception.
John does not deny the reported debt but Sam finds such reports are unhelpful.
But he is equally amiable as his father and keeps a door open to media.
"You know you can always ring me," Sam says.
So, yes, the Lees are cost-saving and have cut back on Snow Park staff by a reported 60%.
The Snow Park has never been a big operation.
About 40 staff have jobs this season.
After some pre-season jitters and season pass uncertainty, the Lees struck a deal to sell the 3700ha Rob Rosa pastoral lease (purchased in 2004), providing capital for the season.
Season ticket sales are important because they help finance infrastructure.
Among those booked at the Snow Park are 20 Chinese snowboarders who will stay eight weeks.
John hopes it is the start of things to come.
Mary is excited many bookings are coming from India, Portugal, Korea and Venezuela.
Sam has scheduled events that are open to all comers.
The aim is for less emphasis on high profile events that dominate the small field.
And a new attraction - sledding - also opens on Snow Park slopes this weekend.
At the Snow Farm, the husky dogs tours are returning and biathletes are delighted with the arrival of their first sport-specific rifles.
There is a good vibe about the Winter Games cross-country ski events to be held in August.
So it is business as usual.
But John and Mary are clearly in the middle of family succession planning and want to retire.
The Pisa Alpine Charitable Trust has been formed to provide continuity when the Lees will no longer be around.
The trust is behind calls on the council to spend $2 million on a 310ha parcel of land, turn it into a recreation reserve and lease it back to the trust to operate as a Nordic ski area.
"Our main wish is that it can go on after we are gone . . . It is a slow process . . . The Snow Farm is profitable, but not a great earner. We hope to get someone else involved because our plans are much bigger than we can do," John said.
Mary has spent 20 years building up the Snow Farm's cross-country skiing but during all that time John has harboured a bigger vision of a Roaring Meg Resort.
He has been actively seeking investors for most of this decade but he admits piecemeal reports of various activities - selling the proving ground, buying Rob Rosa, selling Rob Rosa, seeking finance, proposing a gondola, advertising the Snow Park for sale - have been confusing.
For years, Mr Lee was a thorn in the side of various regulatory bodies, mostly for building controversial skifield access roads.
Now, he has a sheaf of approved consents in his pocket, including plans for a $17 million gondola from the Cardrona Valley to the Snow Park and a subdivision of Waiorau Station into several parcels for sale, either as a whole or piecemeal.
A handful of issues need ironing out.
First, and most important, the Commissioner of Crown Lands has yet to approve the prospective purchaser of the Rob Rosa pastoral lease.
It is part of the statutory process when purchasers live overseas.
John says the man does not want his name released and is not willing to reveal the purchase price, but concedes it is lower than a $3.2 million government valuation.
A mediated agreement with the Commissioner of Crown Lands over a controversial, unfinished water reservoir begun in 2005 needs to be signed off by a judge.
John has visions of a Roaring Meg water catchment scheme to provide storage for winter snow-making, although he says he does not need to be the one to do it.
To be an entrepreneur, you need to be "a bit crazy and you have to have a failure or two".