Coronet Peak at about 8.30am on Wednesday. Photo / Supplied
The Coronet Peak ski area will open this morning more than a week later than planned.
The first skiers hit the slopes at 9am on Wednesday after 25cm of snow settled on the mountain as an arctic polar blast made its way up the country on Tuesday.
"On top of the 48 hours of snowmaking we've had, we've got a great base on the trails to get going," NZSki CEO Paul Anderson said.
Anderson said it was great to be finally up and running after a dry June meant they could not open when they initially wanted to on June 19.
"I'm thrilled. Coronet Peak is a really important mountain for Queenstown.
"It sends a really good signal to the locals and visitors that we're open for business."
Anderson said they expected to have about 1000 people skiing today.
"There will be a mix of loyal locals. Coronet Peak's got a really solid local following, people just love the mountain.
"And of course because it is the closest mountain to town we will get a lot of visitors up there as well."
Night Ski will kick off tonight too, with DJ Charlie Charalambides playing tunes on the deck from 5.30pm.
Looking forward, the forecast is not looking too bad over the next couple of days, Anderson said.
"We've probably got reasonable snowmaking conditions for the next day or two and then it warms up through till about Sunday.
"Then we'll cross our fingers for a bit more snow next week."
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