Two ski fields in the South Island opened today: Mt Hutt in Canterbury and Coronet Peak in Queenstown. Both had good crowds and good snow conditions: not too icy, not too soft, not too thin. We have had cold southerly weather recently bring snow to mountains. Natural snow covers most of the ski areas. In areas where snow is thin, snowmaking has added more snow. Weather this week is expected to stay cold enough for more snowmaking. There could be more natural snow also this week.
The Remarkables ski field will open in another week, on June 20th. North Island ski fields on Mt Ruapehu – Turoa and Whakapapa – will open on June 27th, if the cold weather continues.
Probably all ski fields, big and small, will be open for the school holidays which start on July 4th. Schools start again Monday July 20th.
Listen to June 15th 2013 to hear more about ski fields in NZ.
Vocabulary
• southerly – wind from the south; this is our cold wind. It comes from the Antarctic
• snowmaking – machines make snow from water and air when the temperature is below freezing. They blow the snow onto the ground.