Queenstown, New Zealand – Following a delayed start, two more New Zealand ski areas are scheduled to open for the season Thursday morning when both Coronet Peak near Queenstown, and Lake Wanaka’s Snow Park NZ will come online.
Coronet Peak will start things off with only 10 to 20cm of snow covering limited novice and intermediate terrain served by the Coronet Express and Meadows Express chairlifts, and two conveyor lifts. Runs open will include the main M1 Trail from top to bottom, the Big Easy trail and beginners area. Base building services will include rental, snowsports school, daycare, café, coffee bar, guest services and retail.
Coronet Peak ski area manager Hamish McCrostie said it was a “huge relief” to get the season underway after opening was delayed due to unseasonably warm temperatures.
“Our traditional opening day bubbles have been on ice for quite some time, so finally welcoming skiers and boarders to the slopes deserves a bit of a celebration,” McCrostie said. “It’s great news for Queenstown and we’d really like to thank everyone for their patience and support.”
The resort has been busy making snow with up to 211 snow guns running as temperatures have allowed since Monday evening.
“Our snowmaking and grooming teams, headed by Pete Deuart and Kate Nimmo, have done an absolutely amazing job considering conditions have been less than ideal at times,” McCrostie said.“We’re well aware that our locals and visitors have been waiting for this day, so even though this isn‟t what we’d usually offer on opening day, it’s a great start.”
Thursday’s opening day will also mark Coronet Peak’s first American Express Queenstown Winter Festival event – the Speight‟s Dog Derby.
“We’ll be staging the Dog Derby on a slightly different course to previous years, but given this has been on the calendar for the past 37 years, it’s guaranteed to be the usual mad mix of barking, mayhem, farmers and dogs,” said Mr McCrostie.
While Coronet Peak will not be able to offer night skiing scheduled for Friday night, Winter Festival’s free American Honey Coronet Concert will be held from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., a change to the originally scheduled start time of 4 p.m., on the Coronet Peak deck. The Air New Zealand Holidays Mountain Mayhem day will go ahead as scheduled on Saturday.
Over at Snow Park NZ, cold temperatures allowing for top-to-bottom snowmaking have transformed the resort during the past week, and permitted snowmakers and the ski area’s on-mountain operations staff to prepare the popular box run for Snow Park’s initial opening at 9 a.m. Thursday morning.
“We’re thrilled to be opening,” said Snow Park NZ General Manager Robin Sadowski-Synnott. “Our entire operations crew have done a fantastic job preparing for the season.”
Snow Park NZ is scheduled to be open seven days a week. Additional terrain with night skiing on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights will open as snowmaking and additional snowfall permit.
Opening day will be capped off with the snowboarding movie “Go Seek” at the Woolshed Restaurant, with live music and more beginning at 5 p.m.