The third biennial Winter Games ended last night and event chief executive Arthur Klap says he was proud to have delivered 19 of the 20 scheduled events.
In particular, Mr Klap said being able to hold giant slalom races at Queenstown's Coronet Peak ''in difficult conditions'' was a highlight.
Coronet Peak staff ''worked incredibly hard'' with his games crew to prime the race course for events, as did the crew at Cardrona Alpine Resort.
''They had a difficult job and the way they managed the snow and the snow conditions for the races so that they [the athletes] could all get a fair race was really, really well done.
''It's like the quality turf management you get at a rugby game these days where you no longer get mud; well it's the same with these guys. They worked really hard to deliver the best possible course with limited amounts of snow.''
Despite the challenging, spring-like snow conditions, he said, the games would not be moved forward as August ''has the best snow''.
The men's snowboard slopestyle was the only event which had to be cancelled and that was due to heavy fog.
This year's downtown games villages which screened events were ''definitely a good move'', he said.
He said his team, most of whom were aged under 35, were ''just so dedicated'' and feedback about the organisation had been positive.
''Everything went to plan and in fact the feedback we're getting from the teams [is] that we run the best world cups on the circuit.''
He said there were a number of world cup events in Europe during the past season which generated complaints from athletes due to poor organisation and because of that it was important for the games to deliver those events well.
This year, data collection and feedback was stepped up and he said once the results were in games organisers would meet to discuss finances and possible changes to the next games.
''Early November we will sit down with all that information and we do a big strategy workshop with the board and few key outside people and we then determine the go ahead and the shape of the games and what changes [we could make].''
The next games, to be held in 2015, would not prelude a Winter Olympics as this year's did, but Mr Klap said judging from the previous games, athletes still considered the games important for the competition circuit, especially because of the world cup events.
A closing ceremony for the games was held in Wanaka last night.
