Austrians shooting for gold on South Island slopes

The world's best ski team have started their rigorous Winter Olympics training at Wanaka.

The Austrians, including double Olympic gold medallist Hermann Maier, hit the slopes at Treble Cone yesterday.

The Wanaka ski field is popular with international teams, who use it during the European off-season and "keep coming back year after year due to the great snow, weather and terrain conditions", says area manager Jackie Van der Voort.

Teams from Japan, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden are also heading to Wanaka ski field in the coming weeks. Many are medal prospects at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy.

Treble Cone was boasting 15cm of fresh snow yesterday but the last big dump that covered all four snow fields in the Wanaka region was four weeks ago.

On North Island fields yesterday, Ruapehu's Whakapapa had a 140cm base and Turoa 155cm.