There have been some big snowfalls in New Zealand over the past 24 hour, particularly welcomed by areas like Rainbow and Treble Cone that had delayed opening after a too warm and dry June in their party of the country.
Roads to Mt Cook were blocked by snow this morning and the Ohau Snow Field, pictured above, which opened on schedule this morning, had a great first day with a reported 47cm of fresh snow.
However the snowfall was accompanied by strong winds and Whakapapa, one of the two bases at the country's largest ski area, Ruapehu, which also opened today, had to close again because of the wind. It's forecast to get 40cm more snow over the next 24 hours.
Other ski areas reporting big snowfalls included Cardrona with 20cm in the past 24 hours. Mt Hutt and Coronet Peak on the South Island, which have been open for three weeks already, got another 10cm or so of cover and now have bases at the 70cm mark – they had not had any real problems opening through June and are fully open with top to bottom.
Temperatures are generally in the zero to minus ten bracket Celcius on the slopes, the snow is expected to ease by the end of the weekend but return later in the week to some areas.