New Zealand’s ski fields preparing to open for the 2022 winter season

Resorts across New Zealand are counting down to the winter season, anticipating the return of visitors from Australia and more than 60 other countries.

After the COVID disrupted and predominantly domestic-only ski seasons in 2020 and 2021, ski fields, including Coronet Peak and The Remarkables in Queenstown and Canterbury's Mount Hutt, are now gearing up for winter.

Mount Hutt is set to be the first to open, as of Friday 10th June, with capacity on the mountain having increased with the new Nor'west Express eight-seat chairlift opened last year.

With a ride time of only two minutes, the lift has the capacity to carry up to 3000 skiers per hour while also featurings a loading carpet to assist those who are new to using chairlifts.

Queenstown’s Coronet Peak will be open from Friday 17th June and plans to operate its popular after-hours night skiing nights every Wednesday and Friday from 22nd June onwards.

Also close to Queenstown favourite, The Remarkables will be open every day of the week from Saturday 18th June through to Sunday 16th October. Its Sugar Bowl development includes two recently opened trails and a new snowmaking system, which means better snow coverage on the Serpentine side of the mountain.

Cardrona Alpine Resort's Olympic-sized superpipe will be open from Saturday 11th June, with the ski field having added another chairlift to its network last year, which opened up a new major section of skiable terrain on the southern face.

Treble Cone is also scheduled to open from Saturday 25th June while for cross-country skiers and snow-shoers, Cardrona's Snow Farm is intending to open for the 2022 winter from mid-June - with dates to be confirmed.

New Zealand’s largest ski area, the North Island’s Mt Ruapehu is scheduled to open in stages – with its fields as Happy Valley operating from Thursday 23rd June, Whakapapa from Friday 8th July and Turoa from Saturday 9th July, giving skiers and snowboarders access to the mountain's natural pipes, steep chutes and a vertical drop of 722 metres.

However, operations at Mt Ruapehu may be affected by sporadic volcanic activity, with a steam plume rising from the location last week.

With the mountain’s volcanic danger level being at ‘2’ over the past month, a 2 kilometre exclusion zone around the summit crater has covered just one lift and may be eased again by the time the season gets started.

Potential shortages of skilled international staff at the ski fields through the winter have been criticised by the opposition National party.

National’s Associate Tourism spokesperson Joseph Mooney and Immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford advised last week that “working holidaymakers are this Government's only answer to servicing the tourism industry, yet only 251 people have arrived since the border reopened.

“Minister (Nash [Tourism Minister] was asked in March to bring forward the Accredited Employer Work Visa timeline to allow foreign workers back into New Zealand as soon as possible.

“This has not happened. Instead, a Critical Worker Visa was announced with great fanfare and promises that 20,000 workers would arrive. However, without the resumption of residency pathways, just six people have arrived on this visa since February.”

New Zealand’s strict border closure meant that ski areas were able to operate fairly normally for New Zealanders for much of the first two winters of the pandemic, without need for masks or social distancing, although there were periods of restrictions and closures when small numbers of infections were recorded in the country.

All ski field 2022 season plans are dependent on snow conditions, as well as COVID-19 guidelines and expectations set out by the New Zealand Government.

Images: Snowboarders welcomes the start of winter season operations at the the Remarkables (top) and Mt Hutt's Nor'west Express (below).