The New Zealand ski resorts of Turoa and Whakapapa, on Mt Ruapehu in the Central North Island, have today both cracked the 3 meter mark for snow. “It has been thirteen years since Whakapapa has had this depth of snow,” says Marketing Manager, Mike Smith. “While on Turoa, only once has it exceeded the three metre mark and that was in 2006.”

It is still snowing and the forecast is for continued snow during the next few days.

Smith anticipates that it is highly likely that Whakapapa will be open for Christmas skiing, a feat which last occurred in 2004/5.

Mt Hutt
In Canterbury the Mt Hutt ski area is enjoying the best conditions in years with over 2.5 metres of snow. In the last week 36cm of new snow has giving skiers and riders near perfect conditions, with wall to wall, top to bottom runs.

It is in these conditions at Mt Hutt that the Norwegian Men’s Alpine Ski Team and the Austrian Women’s teams will be training hard, when they arrive on the mountain August 20th.

Queenstown
Snow fell to lake level in Queenstown, with 15 cms reported on Coronet Peak and 12cm at The Remarkables. In total, over the last seven days there have been falls of 35 cm and 22 cm respectively, bringing their bases on the upper mountains to over 1 meter.

Coronet Peak ski area manager Hamish McCrostie says there’s fantastic skiing and riding across the entire mountain.

“It’s vintage Coronet Peak, it doesn’t get much better this. Today there’s an awesome powder day atmosphere – everyone’s carving it up and having a ball.”
Over at The Remarkables, manager Ross Lawrence is seeing the same kind of grins.

“It’s such a buzz to look around and see The Remarkables, Coronet Peak, Queenstown and the entire Wakatipu Basin just blanketed in snow.”

Wanaka
Residents in nearby Wanaka woke to snow on Tuesday and the ski resorts have reported 20 cm of new snow in the last 48 hours.