Ski New Zealand

New Zealand is one of the four main southern hemisphere ski nations (along with Australia, Chile and Argentina) with skiing in New Zealand from late May (Mount Hutt is usually first to open) to late October or even early November (Mt Ruapehu often opens for what they call ‘Snovember’ and has re-opened at Christmas some years).

The country is famed for its challenging slopes which attract the world’s best skiers each winter and having some of the biggest lift served verticals south of the equator to enjoy it with. Several resorts operate international training facilities where World Cup race teams from the northern hemisphere go for their ‘summer training’, and the Winter Games NZ have become a major International Ski Federation (FIS) recognised competition each summer attracting the world’s best.

There are around 25 New Zealand ski resorts, half of them commercial ski resorts, the remainder club fields, usually run by local enthusiasts, generally dedicated volunteers.

The centres are spread across both North and South islands and vary in size from simple centres with one or two drag lifts to large international resorts like Mt Hutt ant Mt Ruapehu on the North Island with its twin ski centres of Turoa and Whakapapa. The country is also home to the only indoor snow centre currently operating in the southern hemisphere, Snow Planet near Auckland.

When you ski New Zealand you’ll find that along with regular lift-served downhill skiing and boarding there’s cat skiing at Mt Potts and the country has a long standing reputation for its heli-skiing with operators like Mount Cook.

The country’s first club fields opened in the late 1920s with the first ski lifts arriving a few decades later. Most of the commercial operations did not really begin until the period from the 1960s to 1980s with Snow Park NZ, which opened in 2002, being the newest operator.

New Zealand is also famous for its spectacular scenery, as made famous worldwide by the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films – many of the country’s resorts boast some of the world’s best mountainscapes from their slopes.

Snow conditions are normally good from June to late September, Mt Hutt has one of the largest snowmaking systems in the southern hemisphere to help ensure its normal early opening date, so long as temperatures are low enough.

The country can also offer great après ski and one of the Southern Hemisphere’s most active gay skiing scenes at Queenstown, the ‘outdoor capital of the world’ and base for three local ski hills.

This is also the base for many other high octane sports including bungee jumps and swings, white water rafting and jet boating and even sky diving among many others.

Along with domestic skiers, New Zealand’s ski resorts attract a large number of Australians to their slopes, on average 50,000 per annum, who usually benefit from a favourable exchange rate to offset the cost of flying over on a trip that takes about three hours, as well as ski fans from around the world.

On top of the usual challenges for extreme skiers, New Zealand can have a few added challenges, including tricky access roads (the route up to Treble Cone is especially notorious) – and volcanic eruptions, with Mt Ruapehu providing particularly impressive seismic activity every now and then.
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New Zealand: latest snow conditions round-up

Summary of forecast snowfall and ski conditions for resorts in New Zealand. Fresh snow is forecast at 14 resorts. Powder is reported at 0 resorts and 0 are reporting good piste conditions.

Recent Eyeball Snow Reports for New Zealand

All resorts

Ski resorts of New Zealand, alphabetically

Resort
snow depth
top and bottom

on-piste

off-piste

Last Snow

Next 9 Days
0–3 | 3–6 | 6–9
snow (cm)
Next 5 days weather forecast.
Freezing level (m)
Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed

(1564m — 2222m)

snow report yesterday

8 cm
yesterday
7.0
22.0
light snow light snow part cloud snow showers cloud
Mid station 1893 m
1650m 1300m 1300m 800m 750m

(2839m — 3754m)

snow report yesterday

28 cm
yesterday
88.0
20.0
heavy snow heavy snow snow showers snow showers cloud
Mid station 3296 m
1500m 1200m 1300m 600m 650m

(1463m — 1737m)

snow report yesterday

2.0 cm
yesterday
18.0
cloud cloud clear light snow cloud
Mid station 1600 m
1800m 1450m 1500m 1150m 1400m

(1400m — 1820m)

snow report 8 days ago

1.0 cm
8 days ago
9.0
18.0
2.0
light snow light snow snow showers light snow light snow
Mid station 1610 m
1700m 1250m 1450m 1200m 1100m

(1294m — 1894m)

snow report yesterday

85
50
Artificial snow cover 3.0 cm
yesterday
13.0
10.0
light snow light snow cloud clear cloud
Mid station 1594 m
1350m 1050m 1200m 900m 800m

(1187m — 1649m)

snow report yesterday

70
15
Artificial snow cover 4 cm
yesterday
12.0
7.0
1.0
light snow light snow cloud snow showers cloud
Mid station 1418 m
1400m 1050m 1150m 850m 900m

(1422m — 1922m)

snow report yesterday

1.0 cm
yesterday
9.0
18.0
2.0
light snow light snow snow showers light snow light snow
Mid station 1672 m
1700m 1250m 1450m 1200m 1100m

(1170m — 1851m)

snow report yesterday

Fox Peak webcam
6 cm
yesterday
5.0
19.0
light snow light snow part cloud snow showers cloud
Mid station 1510 m
1650m 1350m 1350m 800m 750m

(1434m — 1774m)

snow report yesterday

2.0 cm
yesterday
18.0
11.0
snow showers cloud part cloud light snow cloud
Mid station 1604 m
1750m 1550m 1550m 1250m 1200m

(1449m — 2149m)

snow report yesterday

16 cm
yesterday
29.0
19.0
light snow light snow snow showers snow showers cloud
Mid station 1799 m
1550m 1250m 1400m 800m 700m

(1631m — 2080m)

snow report yesterday

11 cm
yesterday
41.0
13.0
mod snow mod snow light snow snow showers cloud
Mid station 1856 m
1350m 1000m 1200m 500m 550m

(1259m — 1679m)

1.0 cm
34 days ago
16.0
2.0
thunderstorm light snow part cloud snow showers light snow
Mid station 1469 m
1900m 1800m 1750m 1350m 1500m

(1086m — 2000m)

snow report yesterday

13 cm
yesterday
75.0
17.0
heavy snow heavy snow light snow snow showers cloud
Mid station 1543 m
1350m 1050m 1300m 150m 100m

(1634m — 1845m)

snow report yesterday

1.0 cm
yesterday
8.0
20.0
2.0
light snow light snow snow showers light snow light snow
Mid station 1740 m
1700m 1250m 1500m 1200m 1100m

(1695m — 2110m)

snow report yesterday

Mount Dobson webcam
65
55
Spring snow 5 cm
yesterday
2.0
25.0
snow showers light snow part cloud light snow cloud
Mid station 1902 m
1750m 1500m 1600m 1100m 1100m

(1400m — 1750m)

snow report yesterday

30
5
Packed powder and groomed snow 1.0 cm
7 days ago
27.0
19.0
cloud part cloud clear light snow cloud
Mid station 1575 m
2050m 1800m 1800m 1200m 1350m

(1646m — 2096m)

snow report yesterday

11 cm
yesterday
10.0
21.0
2.0
light snow light snow snow showers light snow light snow
Mid station 1871 m
1700m 1250m 1450m 1200m 1100m

(1160m — 2231m)

snow report yesterday

18 cm
yesterday
87.0
16.0
mod snow heavy snow light snow snow showers cloud
Mid station 1696 m
1500m 1200m 1400m 700m 800m

(1400m — 2086m)

snow report yesterday

152
105
Packed powder and groomed snow 3.0 cm
9 days ago
2.0
29.0
1.0
snow showers cloud part cloud light snow cloud
Mid station 1743 m
1800m 1500m 1700m 1150m 1400m

(1425m — 1825m)

snow report yesterday

12 cm
yesterday
28.0
14.0
light snow light snow light snow snow showers cloud
Mid station 1625 m
1400m 1150m 1200m 800m 600m

(1310m — 1980m)

snow report 9 days ago

9 cm
9 days ago
6.0
23.0
2.0
light snow cloud part cloud light snow cloud
Mid station 1645 m
1750m 1300m 1550m 1200m 1150m

(1540m — 1760m)

snow report yesterday

10 cm
yesterday
6.0
7.0
1.0
snow showers snow showers light snow light snow cloud
Mid station 1650 m
1650m 1400m 1550m 1150m 1000m

(1475m — 1943m)

snow report yesterday

100
30
Artificial snow cover 3.0 cm
yesterday
6.0
8.0
1.0
light snow light snow cloud snow showers cloud
Mid station 1709 m
1400m 1100m 1100m 950m 950m

(1350m — 2133m)

snow report yesterday

10 cm
yesterday
11.0
19.0
light snow light snow part cloud snow showers cloud
Mid station 1742 m
1550m 1250m 1250m 650m 600m

(1550m — 1800m)

snow report 3 days ago

3.0 cm
yesterday
11.0
11.0
light snow light snow cloud clear cloud
Mid station 1675 m
1400m 1050m 1200m 1000m 950m

(1420m — 1530m)

snow report 3 days ago

3.0 cm
yesterday
10.0
10.0
light snow light snow cloud clear cloud
Mid station 1475 m
1400m 1050m 1200m 1000m 900m

(1425m — 1929m)

snow report 3 days ago

4 cm
yesterday
17.0
10.0
light snow light snow cloud clear cloud
Mid station 1677 m
1350m 1050m 1200m 850m 800m

(1493m — 1923m)

snow report yesterday

opens in 7 days 2.0 cm
yesterday
23.0
11.0
1.0
light snow light snow light snow light snow light snow
Mid station 1708 m
1600m 1200m 1450m 1150m 1000m

(1260m — 1960m)

snow report yesterday

74
40
Packed powder and groomed snow 9 cm
yesterday
40.0
13.0
mod snow mod snow light snow clear cloud
Mid station 1610 m
1300m 1050m 1250m 400m 400m

(1660m — 1910m)

snow report yesterday

Tukino webcam
4 cm
yesterday
3.0
19.0
10.0
light snow light snow snow showers light snow cloud
Mid station 1785 m
1850m 1800m 1650m 1300m 1400m

(1602m — 2322m)

snow report yesterday

15
20
Artificial snow cover 10 cm
yesterday
2.0
22.0
10.0
light snow light snow snow showers mod snow cloud
Mid station 1962 m
1850m 1850m 1700m 1250m 1400m

(1625m — 2300m)

snow report yesterday

9
15
Artificial snow cover 11 cm
yesterday
4.0
23.0
9.0
light snow light snow snow showers mod snow cloud
Mid station 1962 m
1850m 1800m 1650m 1300m 1400m

(1737m — 2165m)

snow report yesterday

15 cm
yesterday
83.0
18.0
heavy snow heavy snow light snow snow showers cloud
Mid station 1951 m
1350m 1050m 1300m 150m 200m