Finally.

After weeks of promised snow, which has either failed to happen or could be best described as dandruff, Mother Nature delivered a welcome, and well-timed, heap of white gold across Queenstown yesterday.

While the snowfall caused some upheaval — five flights in and out of Queenstown yesterday morning were cancelled, while motorists faced a fairly treacherous morning commute, particularly around Frankton, Jacks Point, Ladies Mile and Arrowtown — it was welcomed by skifield operators.

NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson said Coronet Peak had 24cm by first thing yesterday, and estimated about 30cm fell by noon.

Queenstown Airport duty manager Rowan Gent clears snow at the airport yesterday. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

By comparison, up to yesterday, the ski area had only received 40cm of fresh snow all season.

"It’s so perfect," Mr Anderson said.

"I just heard from one of the retailers downtown that they’d all of a sudden had a massive booking come through [yesterday] morning for the rental gear, so that’s what this kind of news does."

The Remarkables received 38cm of snow overnight yesterday — and about another 10cm on top of that by noon — but shut the mountain for the day.

"They couldn’t get the road open because there was so much snow blowing around, so visibility becomes very sketchy."

Given the arrival of international ski teams to train at Coronet, the upcoming Winter Games NZ, Synthony later this month, more night ski events and national ski racing competitions, Mr Anderson said the timing could not be better.

"We’re set up, we’re very happy and we’ll actually get snowmaking on top of this."

Coronet ski area manager Nigel Kerr said they planned to make the most of the cold snap and supplement the fresh snow with snowmaking to further build the base and give the new snow some longevity heading into spring.

The Ida Valley was covered in snow yesterday. PHOTO: RUBY SHAW

"We went from ‘winter is coming’ for a very, very long time, to ‘winter is here’.

"Let’s enjoy."

Meanwhile in Maniototo, the area school opened but not many pupils turned up.

Maniototo Area School principal Melissa Bell said while some areas were able to make the call to close schools early, it could not because of how late the weather came through.

A grader clears the Milford Rd yesterday. PHOTO: WAKA KOTAHI

"Due to the lateness we did open because we knew it was too late for some families to arrange supervision," she said.

No buses had run.

The school opened at 10am to 33 pupils from the school’s roll of 151.

Yesterday was the first time this year the school’s operation had been affected by weather, Ms Bell said.