Winter has come early to New Zealand this year delighting skiers and snowboarders, and lifting the spirits of the tourist industry with the promise of a bumper season ahead.
With unseasonably early, heavy snow falls throughout both islands -earliest in decades for some regions – the country’s main ski fields are opening with an already greater number of bookings than last year.
Visitors to Mt Hutt ski-fields, in New Zealand’s Southern Alps, are catching some spectacular ski action as the ‘capital of speed’ hosts international teams in training for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
29 August – 12 September 2009 | Top snowboarders and skiers with a taste for the wild side are preparing to descend on one of New Zealand’s most remote mountainous regions.
Wanaka, a ski resort on the shores of Lake Wanaka – in New Zealand’s southern lakes region – will host the World Heli Challenge from 29 August – 12 September, 2009.
Heavy snow falls throughout May and early June combined with consistent cold temperatures mean the Southern skifields are in superb shape for the start of the 2009 winter season.
