Mt Ruapehu skifield gears up for opening

Shaz Dagam prepares for the opening of the Turoa season this Saturday. Photo / Alan Gibson

Snowmaking began at Mt Ruapehu last night as the mountain gears up for its earliest season opening.

Unusually large dumps of snow last month mean the beginners' area on the Turoa skifield - Alpine Meadow - can open to the public on Saturday, two weeks before the scheduled date.

More than 30 snow guns were fired up, each pumping out about 250 litres of artificial snow per minute.

Head snowmaker Shaz Dagan said the combination of low humidity and cool temperatures made for perfect snowmaking conditions and if the weather continued the guns would stay pumping until Friday.

About 500 people are expected to turn up on Saturday.

"People can't wait," Ms Dagan said.

"Last Saturday there were over 100 people here. Anyone would have thought we were open already. They bring their own toboggans, kids build snowmen. It's really cool to see."

The lifts and more advanced slopes at Turoa are expected to open on the original June 20 date, while Ruapehu's other skifield, Whakapapa, is expected to open on June 27.

It will be all hands on deck at Turoa this weekend with the bulk of the staff not due to start until June 15.

The Alpine Cafe at the skifield will open today and the newly extended children's carpet lift in the meadow will be launched on Saturday. The lift, which children ride while on their skis, has been expanded to 130m.

About 24,500 season passes have been bought, compared with 18,000 last year. About 85 per cent of those were purchased domestically - mostly in the North Island - and about 12 per cent were bought out of Australia.