Methven, New Zealand (Monday, May 24, 2004) - Snowfall and cold temperatures have got residents of the ski resort town of Methven thinking about winter, less than two weeks before the ski season is due to start. It began snowing at Canterbury’s Mt. Hutt ski area at 10:00 a.m. this morning, and by 3:00 p.m. this afternoon local time about 15 cm (three inches) of snow had fallen and it was still snowing.

“The mountain’s looking all white, just beautiful,” said Mt. Hutt manager Dave Wilson.

“It’s perfect timing for us because we’d just finished work on our huge Cheapskates Terrain Park development, and we’re targeting an opening date of Saturday, June 5.

“We’ve had three good nights of snowmaking already and we started snowmaking again at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon.

“We’ve really got that winter feel in the air and people in Methven certainly knew it today with the temperature at midday reaching only 2ºC.”

In Queenstown, Coronet Peak and The Remarkables ski areas received three to five centimeters (one to two inches) of snow.

Staff at Coronet Peak are completing the final checks on a fully-automated snowmaking system, the first in New Zealand. Thirty snowguns from Italian company TechnoAlpin have replaced the existing guns on the 1.8-kilometer (1.1-mile) M1 trail and the Big Easy learners trail. The new guns are expected to fire up for the first time later this week and Coronet Peak is also targeting a June 5 opening date.

The snow at The Remarkables was also good timing for staff and contractors who have been working hard on a major Xbox Terrain Park and Superpipe development. Major earthworks were completed last week and the ski area plans to open on June 26.