But the windy, overcast and sometimes sleety conditions meant she could not accomplish her intended task of opening the $5.9 million Captain's Express chairlift, which was closed to the public.
Instead, she spoke to a small group of invited guests and media inside the resort's Noodle Bar, before eating lunch and heading up the mountain with Tourism Minister Damien O'Connor and ski patrol leader Geoff Wayatt on the McDougall's chairlift.
Despite taking things quietly, Miss Clark, an avid cross-country skier, was definitely not floundering on her alpine skis, having first learned to ski on Mt Ruapehu about 1966.
Miss Clark last skied in Norway in December and tries to take a South Island holiday twice a year to cross-country ski at the Snow Farm, also in the Cardrona Valley.
She looked confident and was keen to do two runs, despite the inclement conditions, before heading to Queenstown to open the 2008 Winter Festival.
During Miss Clark's last visit she also opened a chairlift, the $3.5 million Whitestar Express.
Since then at least another $8 million has been spent by the skifield's Australian owners, the Veall family, in upgrading snowmaking, expanding a cafe, renovating the children's centre and building a new Olympic-standard half pipe.
Miss Clark told the lunch-time gathering it only seemed like yesterday since she was at Cardrona and "everything is getting bigger and better".
She had been looking forward to the visit greatly.
"This morning when I got up early in Auckland and got into all the high cupboards for the ski gear, I felt liberated," Miss Clark said.
She congratulated Snow Sports New Zealand, the Winter Olympics Committee and the skifield for working to get high-profile FIS and Continental Cup events in New Zealand this year, as well as the Winter Games NZ next year.
The developments and events were exciting achievements and the expected television broadcasts of the 2009 Winter Games would be critical for putting the district on the map as a winter destination, Miss Clark said.
The Government has contributed $500,000 to the Winter Games through events funding.
Miss Clark also congratulated several snow-sports athletes by name, although they were not at the opening.
They included Outram Paralympian skier Adam Hall, who Miss Clark said had such a string of gold medals she could not begin to list them.
"That's fantastic. That's the kind of level of profile we haven't had in previous years," Miss Clark said.
Cardrona skifield general manager Duncan Veall said the new Captain's Express chairlift would carry skiers up the mountain in three and a-half minutes compared with nine minutes on the former chairlift.
Faster chairlifts enabled "high-speed skiing" over all the skifield terrain.
