Snowguns at Queenstown’s Coronet Peak and The Remarkables skifields fired up last night, and they will keep cranking for as long as possible to bolster the natural snowfall arriving in a perfectly timed polar blast, ahead of the scheduled season opening on June 14.
NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson expected up to 30cm of snow could be on the way, but more importantly, bitterly cold temperatures forecast would enable "solid snow-making" over the next five or six days which should mean Coronet could open top to bottom next week.
"We are confident that we will be open on the 14th, as advertised."
Mr Anderson said the plan was for both Queenstown skifields to open on the same day.
"The reason we’ve done that, I noticed this last year, as soon as we opened, town got busy.
"I think it’s really important that we send a really strong signal to the market that Queenstown is open for business."
He believed last month was "one of the most sudden shoulder seasons we’ve had for a few years", but questioned if it was just more noticeable because of the huge influx of people to the Wakatipu between Easter and Anzac Day.
NZSki employs about 1300 people across its three mountains including Mt Hutt. Of those, 900 are in Queenstown.
Mr Anderson said the company had a staff return rate of more than 50% and a record 6000-plus applications for about 600 remaining jobs.
Accommodation-wise, some of the heat had been taken out of the market through a 90-bed CBD hostel, a new apartment development off Fryer St, comprising six two-bedroom units, and four or five houses NZSki owned near Gorge Rd, all of which were full.
"Then you’ll have staff that are returning that already know where they’re going — they kind of work out their flats and flatting situations, year to year — so we’re focused on the new people coming in."
Transport to and from The Remarkables would be similar to last year.
Those who did not have a full car would be in carpark 4 and get a shuttle "right up to the door" of the ski area, ensuring families and those with full cars got the closest parks.
Cardrona Alpine Resort, owned by RealNZ, was also targeting a June 14 opening.
Treble Cone has a tentative opening date of June 27.
