The ski season has arrived in the South. More than 3000 skiers and snowboarders headed to southern mountains for a windy opening weekend.
Coronet Peak was the first of the Queenstown fields to open, while over the Crown Range, near Wanaka, Cardrona skifield also welcomed its first guests of the 2015 winter season, though Saturday's activities were cut short by strong winds.
Although there were good amounts of snow across the mountain, after about an hour the wind became too strong for the lifts to operate and 1500 keen skiers headed down the mountain early.
Another 1500 had more luck yesterday. Coronet Peak ski area manager Ross Copland was a happy man after one of the skifield's busiest opening weekends.
''Saturday was one of our biggest opening days in years with more than 2000 people,'' he said.
''A fantastic turnout from locals and I've heard quite a few Australian accents, too.''
Southwesterly gusts of 100kmh hit the top of the mountain on Saturday, closing the main chairlift for most of the day. However, other lifts provided access to the nine of 27 runs open.
All chairlifts were open yesterday, with calmer conditions, winds of around 50kmh at the top, sunny skies and more than 1000 people on the slopes by noon.
Four young Queenstown and Arrowtown snowboarders spent Friday night in the ski area to earn the coveted first spot on the chairlift.
Ryusei Wakushima (15), Caleb Harding (15), Finn Duffy (16) and Oliver Hill (15) slept out from 7pm, building a fire to keep warm.
''There was nice powder up there and it was definitely worth queuing up for,'' Finn said after his first run.
''The other boys will stay up here all day but I'm off to play rugby this afternoon, after a night of no sleep.''
Snow conditions were good for opening day, with a base depth of 20cm to 50cm on the major open runs - crisp corduroy on groomed trails in the morning, softening in the afternoon - and more snow is forecast.
''There's a southerly system that will move in this afternoon and overnight that should develop into snow,'' Mr Copland said yesterday.
