The fresh 30cm snowfall across Cardrona Alpine Resort could not have come at a better time for the skifield's season opening tomorrow.
Cardrona sales and marketing manager Nadia Ellis said the new snow yesterday had given the resort a fresh blanket of powder, on top of the skifield's "great snow-pack".
Rain last weekend had not affected snow conditions at Cardrona "too much".
It had in fact helped to strengthen the pack and quality of the resort's snow base, Ms Ellis said.
Ski patrollers and skifield grooming staff had had two days to prepare it for tomorrow's opening, she said.
"We've got a ton of new snow on cue for opening day," she said.
"It's really exciting."
Cardrona has recently finished installing its new Valley View chairlift.
This completes stage 1 of an expansion plan at the resort.
The addition of the lift meant Cardrona had the most chairlifts of all New Zealand's skifields, Ms Ellis said.
New snowguns, to line the expanded Valley View area at Cardrona, were the next items on the skifield's list of improvements, Ms Ellis said.
Stage 2 of the expansion plan was expected to be on track by next year, she said.
Cardrona would rely on natural snowfalls for the new "Gold Rush" run and Valley View area.
Snowfalls would determine when the area was open and closed, Ms Ellis said.
• Treble Cone skifield also received new snow on Tuesday night to freshen the mountain for its season opening today.
About 5cm of new snow fell to the car park and base building.
The upper mountain had received about 20cm, a Treble Cone spokeswoman said yesterday.
• Pisa Range freestyle facility Snow Park New Zealand has also benefited from the arrival of new snow before its season opening day on Saturday.
Snow Park operations manager Sam Lee said the new snow was being groomed to help shape features such as the terrain park's new 22ft Olympic-sized half-pipe.
The half-pipe is on schedule to be completed for the opening weekend.
Snow Park staff had also been involved in an onsite training day yesterday.
There were several improvements to facilities at the park.
These included upgrades to features in the Woolshed restaurant, cafe, bar and mountain-top apartments.