Now it’s the Turn of New Zealand as More Snow Falls
15th June 2022
Last modified on June 18th, 2022
There have been huge falls of snow in Australia so far this season, but less so in New Zealand. Not any more as up to 1m has fallen in places. It comes as things get back to normal after Covid-19 with hopes high for a bumper ski season ahead. UPDATED
The last two seasons in New Zealand and Australia have been disrupted by Covid-19 restrictions and hopes are high for a good winter following the excellent start.
Travellers to New Zealand will no longer require a Covid-19 pre-departure test from 20th June.
“We’ve taken a careful and staged approach to reopening our borders to. Our strategy has worked and as a result it’s safe to lift pre-departure test requirements sooner than planned,” said the Covid-19 Response Minister, Dr Ayesha Verrall.
“We had intended to remove the requirement for travellers to have a pre-departure test by 31 July. But with cases continuing to decline there is evidence this measure can now be lifted.”
The significant levels of snow in New Zealand came ahead of the opening of many ski resorts for this weekend.
The resort of Coronet Peak on the South Island opened a day early on Thursday 16th June.
“Coronet Peak will be opening a day early!” said the resort earlier this week as the snow continued to fall.
“We’ve got the whole team on deck and with several more days of stormy weather we are looking forward to an epic opening.”
It’s looking good in Cardrona too.
There have been some problems getting staff up to the resort ahead of its opening as the heavy snow closed the access road.
The snow ploughs were brought in and after a short delay the road opened.
Mt. Hutt had to cancel its planned opening for last Friday and opened on Friday, June 17th.
It now says there is the most snow it has “seen in the base area on an opening.”
The Remarkables is stuck to opening as originally planned on Saturday 18th.
At the resort opening of The Remarkables there was a special visitor – the country’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern.
“Another epic opening day done and dusted,” said the resort on Facebook.
“Thanks everybody for coming up and sharing the stoke with us 
special shout out to our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern for visiting. Welcome to the 2022 season!”
Treble Cone on the South Island has also seen the fresh snow and is scheduled to open as planned on June 25th.
“This storm has provided us with a tonne of snow and is quite possibly the biggest storm we’ve seen in 20 years'” said the resort.
“We’re seeing about 120-150cm of snow on the roof of the base building currently.”
Australia is seeing its best opening conditions in decades and resorts are now open as we reported earlier:
Thredbo, Australia. Image © PlanetSKI
And lets not forget the island of Tasmania off the south east coast of Australia.
Its largest ski field, Ben Lomond, normally opens in July but it has already fired up its lifts.
“We had a lot of work to do over the last couple of days to get us open,” said Ben Mock from Ben Lomond Ski Lifts to local media.
“It was so stressful but then we got the tick and it was just a sigh of relief.
“It certainly sets us up for the winter season. The snow that has fallen is a great base for us to start on and there is more on the forecast.”
Here at PlanetSKI we’ll keep you posted as the resorts in New Zealand open and the season Down Under gets underway.
Do check back…
Skiing in New Zealand. Image © PlanetSKI.
