Mountains open for winter

The Queenstown Lakes 2025 ski season is officially under way.

Thousands of keen skiers and snowboarders hit the mountains yesterday for their first taste of snow this year.

NZSki ski fields The Remarkables and Coronet Peak both opened above the Whakatipu Basin, while the chairlifts were also spinning at RealNZ ski field Cardrona Alpine Resort, between Queenstown and Wānaka.

Weather conditions were clear with a beautiful sunrise above the clouds, cold temperatures and no wind.

"It’s incredible to kick off the 2025 season and see so many happy people out there having fun this morning,” Laura Hedley, Cardrona and Treble Cone Chief Mountains Officer, says.

"To have so much terrain open with mostly man-made snow is a testament to our Terrain and Snow team who have put in weeks of hard work to get us here."

At Cardrona, the McDougall’s Chondola and learners conveyors were open, while the snowmaking guns are a full blast so the team can open Whitestar Express, Captains Express, Valley View, Willow’s Quad and the new T-Bar over the coming days and weeks.

Soho Express will also open this season, opening 150ha of new terrain. The ski area will officially bless and hold the opening ceremony on 28 June, and will also open the new Noodle Bar restaurant that day.

Cardrona also has a new a new base building with atrium, retail and dining, the bottom section of the access road has been sealed, and there's snowmaking and carparking upgrades.

The Cardrona Corner retail shop, atrium space and courtyard opened yesterday.

“It was down to the wire – the team were working tirelessly until late last night to get those spaces ready for the public. We’re so stoked with the end result, and we hope everyone who comes up gets the most out of these new areas to sit, store gear and shop,” Hedley says.

The ski field was operating on a snow base of about 60cms yesterday.

Over at Coronet Peak, there's also 60cm on the ground with Coronet Express and Meadows chairlifts open, along with the learners conveyors.

Greengates Express and Rocky Gully T-Bar will open in the coming weeks, when the snow gods deliver some more coverage.

Nigel Kerr, Coronet Peak ski area manager, says there were about 1500 people on the mountain on Saturday, although it was difficult to say exactly how many due to a now-fixed problem with the ski pass software.

"It was a good day - the weather was perfect and that definitely helps, no doubt about it," he says.

"We're really happy to get away to a good start and there's a really good, resilient base, top to bottom. We need to build out some width though, over the next week or so before the holidays."

Both the New Zealand and Australian school holidays get underway from 28 June, running until 13 July, which usually produces an early season rush.

There's no snow forecast for Queenstown over the next week or so, but hopefully temperatures will be low enough to allow the snowmaking guns to fire.

Coronet Peak has 270 staff trained up and ready to rock, with another 150 snowsports staff being onboarded over the coming weeks.

Kerr says there's not too much change on the mountain this year.

"We've moved some snow guns around and built a bit more capacity and resilience in the snow making system on the slopes," he says.

"We've upgraded a lot of the rental fleet and there's also a hot tub over at Heidi's Hut now."

The Remarkables also opened yesterday with around 15cm snow base. Curvey Basin and Alta chairlifts were open, with Sugar Bowl Express and Shadow Express on hold, along with the parks and chutes.