Ohakune, New Zealand – As the seasons change and the northern ski and snowboard season is getting underway, Turoa Ski Area on Mt. Ruapehu, on New Zealand’s North Island, closed for the winter on Sunday, the last ski resort in the southern hemisphere to do so this year.nAround 1000 skiers and snowboarders enjoyed blue skies and 6cm of fresh snow that fell on Saturday. Mt. Ruapehu Alpine Lifts Marketing Manager, Mike Smith, said it was a fantastic end to what has been a very challenging season.

“Nature wrote us a perfect script for the last day of the season with blue skies and fresh snow,” Smith said, acknowledging that the 2010 winter has been particularly difficult with volatile weather patterns courtesy of La Niña patterns.

“We are certainly down on the record breaking 2009 but some seasons are just going to be tougher than others,” Smith said.