It may have been a partial opening but the excitement was full-on for the quartet who took the honour of first up the mountain for 2023, aboard Coronet Peak’s Meadow Express chairlift, a little after 9am yesterday.
Two of the four, David Furniss of Arrowtown and Kurt Wilson, from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, had spent a chilly night on the mountain to secure their spot, sleeping on deck chairs near the lift.
"We had blankets, and a few whiskies to keep warm," Mr Furniss said.
He reckoned it was his "13th or 14th" season being first up the mountain.
"I do it for the T-shirts, they’re collectors’ items worth thousands of dollars," he quipped.
The other half of the first four, Queenstown’s Natalie Urbani and Mariachi Kosovich from nearby Lake Hayes Estate, took the warmer option of staying in their own beds before heading to the slopes in the early morning.
Along with Meadows, the two carpet lifts were operating, however the snow was too thin to ski the top trails with the Coronet Express gondola restricted to taking people up sight-seeing.
NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson said "the biggest inversion layer he had seen in 10 years" was responsible for keeping all the cold air trapped in the valley and making the top of the field too warm for snowmaking.
"It was weird one night, it was -6degC in the valley and it was 8degC up here. We need that situation to reverse," Mr Anderson said.
"The M1 main trail down from the top is not that far away. One good night’s snowmaking we’ll be able to get that open.
"We’ll build this up over the next week or two and we’ll be all go."
Across the Wakatipu Basin, Coronet’s NZSki stablemate The Remarkables opened its season with only the magic carpets in action today.
"We’ve got a lot of bookings for learners so they’re all going to be out there," Mr Anderson said.
"We’re on the big build towards the school holidays. Fingers crossed over the next couple of weeks we do get some decent snow."
Pleasing for Mr Anderson is the "labour market has bounced back" from the impacts of Covid-19 with NZSki’s three fields, Coronet peak, Remarkables and Mount Hutt, having a full complement of 1487 staff.
"The big difference has been the working holiday-makers. Through Covid-19, with the borders shut, that population just slowly reduced and it’s taken a couple of years for it to get back to what it was pre-pandemic.
"But the big challenge is still accommodation. It’s always been hard for people to find somewhere to live in Queenstown."
