Snow has been reported across New Zealand's mountains overnight with resorts on north and South islands posting pictures of fresh snow cover.
Equally important for most, temperatures have dropped well below zero allowing the snowmaking guns to fire up.
Mt Hutt is aiming to be one of the first in the country to open in three-and-a-half weeks' time on Friday, May 10th and a drop in temperature there down to as low as minus 8 degrees at the top of the mountain allowed ski area staff to crank up the mountain's extensive snowmaking system.
The snow and copld temperatures have come as a relief after a 'mild May' so far in the country.
"It's been a great first night and our snowmaking team's delighted to see the arrival of cold temperatures and blow 'mild May' into touch. Everyone's really excited to see snow on the ground and it's looking really positive for continued cold temperatures and more snow as we track into the weekend," said ski area manager James McKenzie, who added,
"We can definitely draw a line under warm May temperatures and say that winter has finally arrived with a vengeance. We had up to 3cm of natural snowfall then it was 'all guns blazing' including our new snowguns hot out of the container that arrived from Italy on Friday,"
"Our snowmaking team battled strong winds to get the new guns in place over the last few days, complementing our existing arsenal. By 3am this morning the system was at full bore, producing three tonnes of snow every minute spread across our main trails.
(Pictured above: Coronet Peak snow making team members Jake Reilly (L) and Lucy Ruck (R) CREDIT Ross Copland)