The six-dog class at the Wanaka Sled Dog Festival at Snow Farm, on the Pisa Range, which concluded on Saturday, was won by a team of English pointers from Christchurch, led by musher Julian Johnston.
The four-dog class was won by a mixed team of pointers and Siberian husky crosses.
Wanaka Sled Dog Festival trail boss Tony Turner said the English pointers handled the cold well, and had the benefit of being better suited to training in New Zealand where it was relatively warm.
Temperatures of -20degC to -30degC was where huskies came into their own.
Mr Turner said the festival went well. Snow which arrived the day before the festival made ''all the difference in the world''.
''We had really good trails and it [the snow] put a smile on the competitors' faces.''
The events comprised of sled dog racing over several distances, the longest being 12km, and skijoring, where skiers were towed by a dog or dogs.
The 4.5km two-dog category was won by John Pinney, of Dunedin, in just over 15 minutes, with his dogs Ash and Cole, a win made special as a year ago Cole almost had a leg amputated because of injury.
Numbers in the festival, which is New Zealand's only on-snow dog sled races, fell after the Christchurch earthquake but were starting to bounce back.
''In 1996 we had nine competitors, and this year we had 27 teams, but at its peak we had 41 to 42 teams,'' Mr Turner said.
The number of people involved with sled-dog racing fluctuated but overall its profile was growing. This year, a large number of competitors came from the North Island, he said.
Training for sled dog racing in New Zealand was different than in other countries where the sport was more popular, because of the lack of snow.
Mr Turner said the reaction from people who saw him training on Oreti Beach with his 11-dog team attached to the front of his quad bike, was usually that of ''stunned mullets''.
