Yesterday, the Burton High Fives began at the Snow Park with 60 of the world's top snowboarders competing in the new four-day invitational event.
Included are a series of off-snow challenges, such as skeet-shooting, knife-throwing and jet-boat trials, before the slopestyle finals tomorrow and halfpipe finals on Saturday.
The Burton High Fives' $80,000 prize purse is the largest to date in New Zealand snow sports history.
This Saturday, cross-country skiers from New Zealand and throughout the world will compete in the 17th annual Snow Farm Merino Muster, which commemorates the age-old tradition of sheep mustering high in the Southern Alps.
The mass-start event caters for novice to international elite athletes, with three race distances: the 42km Merino Muster main event, the 21km Snow Rake and the 7km Straggle Muster, which also includes a social team relay event. A Mini Muster will be held for children under 10.
Snow Farm will also host the Wanaka Sled Dog Festival from August 29 to 31.
On Monday, elite skiers and riders representing 24 nations line up to compete in the FIS Snowboard and Freestyle Ski Halfpipe world cups at Cardrona Alpine Resort, the sole World Cup stop in the southern hemisphere this year.
Olympic medallists, World Cup champions and Winter Games 2011 medallists will compete in the first event of the official qualification period for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia in 2014.
Winter Games New Zealand chief executive Arthur Klap said the calibre of athletes attending the event was a clear indication of how highly regarded New Zealand was as a destination capable of staging world-class snowsport competitions.
From August 28 to September 8, the North Face Freeski Open of New Zealand will see some of the world's best freeskiers travelling to Snow Park for the halfpipe and slopestyle competitions and the Remarkables in Queenstown for the big mountain event.
