All signs point to good Gay Ski Week

Despite the rain in downtown Queenstown, participants in this year's Gay Ski Week were "very happy" when they realised it was snowing on the Remarkables, organiser Sally Whitewoods said.

The week's opening party was held on Saturday night at a central Queenstown bar and Mrs White-woods said that "it was a good night to have the opening party".

She said judging from the numbers, more than 200 when she left at 11pm, this year's week-long party had trumped last year's already.

"It is definitely bigger than last year ... and, hopefully, it will be bigger again [next year]."

In addition to New Zealand and local participants, "There's still a lot from Australia and we had a few from Canada and Singapore," she said.