Snow Sports

With elite athletes back in town and plying the ski fields of the Queenstown Lakes region, New Zealand’s southern mountains are once again the training destination of choice for many northern hemisphere skiers and snowboarders.

Fresh snowfalls on New Zealand’s southern winter playgrounds have arrived on cue for mid-winter holidays and the opening of Treble Cone – the South Island’s largest ski area.

Snow sports were out in force this weekend as the first two New Zealand ski areas opened for the official start of the 2012 winter season.

International snow sports stars with a taste for the high life will soon be heading to New Zealand’s southern alpine regions to compete in the 2012 World Heli Challenge – dubbed “the most exotic snow-based event on the planet”.

One of the best times of year to experience Queenstown New Zealand is during the American Express Queenstown Winter Festival at the end of June.

Kiwi adventurer Erik Bradshaw has made New Zealand alpine history as the first person to ski the length of the Southern Alps.

New Zealand's southern winter slopes are a-buzz with high adrenalin activity as international snow and ice sports stars take their places for the second 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games.

A wintry blast has dumped a deep snow blanket across New Zealand’s mountains over the past week, leaving ski fields in the north and south in superb shape for the winter season.

Skiers and snowboarders are clapping their gloved hands and kicking up their snow boots – kei te heke te hukapapa (it is snowing) and the New Zealand ski season is underway.

It took a while but the snow has finally arrived, dusting off Coronet Peak ski area in time for the concluding days of the 2011 Queenstown Winter Festival.