The top halfpipe performers are Kelly Clark (United States), who won a bronze medal in Vancouver and gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics, and Iouri Podladtchikov, of Switzerland, who was fourth in the Olympic men's halfpipe in February.
Gold medallist Shaun White is not returning to defend the New Zealand halfpipe title he won last year during the Winter Games.
The competition will still be strong for Podladtchikov, who is joined on the invitation list by American Louie Vito (fifth in Vancouver) and Japanese boarders Kazuhiro Kokubo (eighth in Vancouver) and Ryo Aono (ninth in Vancouver).
All have been seeded straight through to the semifinals on Saturday.
Clark is defending her title but her podium companions from last year, top Chinese women Jiayu Liu (fourth in Vancouver) and Zhifeng Sun (seventh in Vancouver), are not on the invitation list and it is not known if they will compete this week.
No New Zealand halfpipe riders were on the invitation list provided to the Otago Daily Times, meaning Olympians James Hamilton, Kendall Brown, Mitchell Brown and Juliane Bray will have to prove their mettle during Thursday's qualifying rounds.
American Jamie Anderson and Canada's Sebastien Toutant are back to defend their slopestyle titles.
New Zealand slopestylers Shelly Gotlieb, Stef Zeestraten, Jacob Koia and Nick Brown are on the invitation list and will proceed directly to the semifinals on Friday.
Some of the snowboarders were treated to a day of bungy jumping, jet-boating and golf in Queenstown yesterday.
Clark said she would be spending three months training in New Zealand, mostly at Cardrona.
"Wanaka has become quite a hub for snowboarders. It is a great place to stay," she said.
She did not yet know if she would be presenting new tricks on the slopes this season.
"After an Olympic year you kind of have to regroup and start looking another four years ahead."
The $50,000 Open begins today with rider registrations and practices and continues until Saturday.
It is the first of five events throughout the world in the Burton Global Open series.
It is also part of the international Ticket To Ride series. For the first time, a live scoring system will be used.
It scores riders on individual tricks and how well they link all their tricks on their run down the halfpipe.
It replaces the current system, which provides little or no feedback on how the score is generated.
