{"id":19893,"date":"2014-06-10T09:21:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T09:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/nz-snow-season-starts-with-opening-of-queenstowns-coronet-peak-ski-area\/"},"modified":"2014-06-10T09:21:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T09:21:00","slug":"nz-snow-season-starts-with-opening-of-queenstowns-coronet-peak-ski-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2014\/06\/nz-snow-season-starts-with-opening-of-queenstowns-coronet-peak-ski-area\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ snow season starts with opening of Queenstown\u2019s Coronet Peak ski area"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queenstown\u2019s Coronet Peak opened today with a celebratory spray of Amisfield bubbles signaling the official start of the winter season.<\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Under blues skies, a beautiful day with no wind, the ski area was the first to open in Australasia, celebrating the occasion in style with around 300 excited skiers and boarders who had queued up for the lifts to open, eager to cut their first tracks.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Coveted \u2018First on the Chair\u2019 honours for the first four to ride the Coronet Express, went to a group of Queenstown teenagers who arrived at 11pm the night before and spent a cold night trying to sleep under the picnic tables on the deck to claim their spot of first on chair fame.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
\"Boys<\/div>\n
Finn Duffy, Tiarn Collins, Jacob O\u2019Donoghue-Price and Cooper Neilson, all 14, were the lucky riders to receive a \u2018First on the Chair\u2019 T-shirt and bragging rights to be the first down the hill.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve never done this before but we thought we\u2019d do it to check out what the competition was like,\u201d said Finn.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
And after their first run? \u201cIt was great to have the run to ourselves, it was hard and fast,\u201d said Finn.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
\"First<\/div>\n
Over 600 guests flocked to the mountain for the much anticipated opening day and were welcomed by ski area manager Ross Copland.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cToday is all about Queenstown locals dusting off the gear and having a ski,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got the best snow in the Southern Hemisphere at this early stage of the season thanks largely to the great investment in snowmaking and the reliability that gives us.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s great for Queenstown to get the season underway, and looking ahead we\u2019re excited about Winter Festival and the re-launch of night skiing with doubling of the terrain. Overall we\u2019ve got some really promising signs for the season to come.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Among the avid snow lovers were Queenstown local Yuko Wakushima and her children Cool, 12, and Anru, 10.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"Queenstown<\/div>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so excited to be up here,\u201d she said, beaming from ear to ear.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Coronet Peak opened with an average 30cm of snow on the main trails, providing access on the Coronet Express to the main M1 trail, Upper and Lower Wall Street,  Pro Am, Mid Gully and Million Dollar.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
The Meadows Express lift also opened for novice and early intermediate skiers and boarders to access Big Easy and Gentle Annie with carpet lifts running in the main beginners\u2019 area.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
For up-to-date snow conditions and further information go to www.nzski.com<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queenstown\u2019s Coronet Peak opened today with a celebratory spray of Amisfield bubbles signaling the official start of the winter season. Under blues skies, a beautiful day with no wind, the ski area was the first to open in Australasia, celebrating the occasion in style with around 300 excited skiers and boarders who had queued up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}