The ski season started late but so did the school holidays and the two week delay has delivered much better snow on Central Otago ski fields than there was a fortnight earlier.
The Ministry of Education’s decision to move state school holidays back two weeks this year for the Rugby World Cup proved to be a blessing in disguise for Queenstown and Wanaka skifields, which enjoyed their busiest days of the season so far at the weekend.
Usually, the school holidays would have fallen earlier this month, when the district’s skifields were battling to open because of a lack of snow. While the district suffered from visitor cancellations during the Australian school holidays over the past fortnight, last week’s heavy snowfalls came just in time for the New Zealand school break.
Wanaka was very, very quiet in June and early July.
Good snow for the school holidays will be welcomed not just by the ski fields but by other businesses in the town which benefit from the presence of skiers.
Homepaddock 
An identical situation in the north Ele. We drove past Ruapehu, Ngaruahoe and Tongariro at the weekend, and they looked absolutely stunning, with about 1.5 metres of snow on the skifields. Yesterday and today have been gorgeous sunny, calm days, and the crowds will have flocked there with the dollars that the community so depends on. Everyone’s a winner.
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For the first time in well over 50 years my enthusiasm for snow is diminished. Perhaps I am approaching that state of wisdom my father wished me to have on being informed I was going skiing.
His rather incredulous response was along the lines of, “you are going to play in snow when I have spent many years of my farming life fighting it”.
I am sure the thrill will absorb me again as it is one of the very few places where speeding is still legal.
Ahh many happy memories of skiing Turoa in the 80s and 90s Iv2.
On a calm clear day that terrain is AWESOME, sadly there are so many crap days with that mountain sticking up in the middle of the Island. We are spoilt for choice here in Canterbury and in the Lake district with the options we have.
There the blood is stirring already just thinking about it.
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