New Zealand's Full 2025 Ski Season Starts Friday
Friday 13th June can’t be called the first day of 2025 skiing and riding in New Zealand, as that already happened, but after several false dawns it does mark the start of the season in terms of daily opening of the country’s major centres.
Some New Zealand ski areas have already had their lifts turning for a few days earlier in the month, so Friday 13th June can’t be called the first day of 2025 skiing and riding in New Zealand, but after several false dawns it does mark the start of the season in terms of daily opening of the country’s major centres.
Mt Hutt opens Friday with Cardrona, Coronet Peak and The Remarkables joining it from Saturday.
“With an incredible effort from the snowmaking team and some help from Mother Nature, Cardrona will open on Saturday with both the McDougall's Chondola and the Learner Conveyors spinning. Skiers and snowboarders will be able to access McDougall's trail and the Beginners' Area from Opening Day, and the North Face Cardrona Parks Crew will put in a few features in McPark (the temporary early season terrain park under McDougall's - a locals' favourite of the start of each winter). First chair tees will be up for grabs, so set those alarms and get up here for the first turns of Winter 2025!" said Laura Hedley, Chief Mountains Officer for Cardrona & Treble Cone.
Mt Hutt has already had a weather roller coaster even before the season begins. It’s currently reporting 75-125cm of natural cover and a pre-season snowfall total of 263cm (nearly nine feet).
A big chunk of that fell in the first week of May, leading to the rest announcing it would open a fortnight early, on May 31st. Unfortunately warmer weather in the interim led to that plan being postponed to last weekend, by which time stormy weather and heavy snowfall had returned leading to another early-opening postponement to Friday 13th – the day they’d always planned to open anyway.
Elsewhere, Coronet Peak described its early-season conditions as “mint” with its Coronet Express, Meadows Express and the Carpets running. The Remarkables had Curvey, Alta and the conveyors open for its 40th season start with a rail setup in the learners’ area.
The Manganui Ski Area run by the Stratford Mountain Club was first to open for skiing in New Zealand last weekend, but closed on Monday due to rain damage to the snowcover.
