South Island ski fields have reported high snowfall as a storm system makes its way up the country, leading to high avalanche risk across much of the alpine region.
Snow began falling on southern ski fields around Queenstown on Wednesday, increasing overnight as the system moved north to hit Canterbury slopes.
On Thursday the NZ Avalanche Advisory began increasing avalanche risk assessments for large areas of the Southern Alps and multiple ski fields.
Temple Basin Ski Club vice president Hugo Young said despite expecting snow at this time of year, the amount was an unexpected surprise.
"If you look back recently in the past three to four years, there hasn't been accumulations like this in one period."
Young said yesterday morning the mountain was recording 25cm of snow, within 90 minutes it had increased to 35cm.
Parts of the South Island received more than 20 centimetres of snow on Thursday.
Young said “anything over 20cm is pretty good”.
Despite the weather, Temple Basin still had its lodges entirely booked out for the weekend.
Craigieburn Valley Ski Club president Edward Griffiths said while Friday's snowfall was very welcome due to the lack of snow so far in August.
“Normal operations this coming weekend, and we're expecting a good busy day both days of the weekend."
Griffiths said club champ competitions planned for Saturday were still going ahead.
However, a post on the ski area's Facebook page said it was closed on Friday, after 65mm of rain overnight had frozen and created dangerous skiing.
The NZ Avalanche Advisory had all ski fields in the South Island, except for Ohau, at high risk of an avalanche on Friday morning; just shy of the highest possible level of 'extreme'.
Ohau continued to sit just below the rest at a ‘considerable’ risk.
Young recommended the public should not go into the alpine area due to the risk.
“You could have avalanches that come from the ridgelines to the valley floor. You could be in the valley floor thinking your safe, but in actual fact you're not."
Griffiths also said Craigieburn were “extremely careful” when dealing with avalanche control.
A number of ski fields in the Queenstown-Lakes district opened lifts on Friday, while their Canterbury counterparts remained closed.
No lifts at Mt Hutt were open. The mountain had received 35cm of snow in the past week, according to its website on Friday.
The snowfall and rain in the Queenstown-Lakes area caused several evacuations and Fire and Emergency calls for flooded roads, and in some cases, properties.
