Coronet Peak celebrates opening

Queenstown’s Coronet Peak ski area celebrated its opening day today (Thursday June 30) with bubbles and cheers, as up to 400 keen skiers and snowboarders waited for the first lifts to open at 9am.

Numbers swelled to more than 1,500 guests throughout the day, many of them school groups, visiting Australians and some diehard locals.

First on the Coronet Express quad chairlift were the Bryant family from Queenstown, father Tim and son and daughter Cougar (8) and Tallulah (6) who had been waiting patiently since 5.45am, and Rebecca O’Reilly of Perth.

“We were second last year and wanted to be first in 2011,” said Mr Bryant.

Sixteen-year-old Rebecca said her family was here for a holiday until the end of July, and was “stoked” to get a coveted ‘First on the lift 2011’ T-shirt.

As staff from local winery Amisfield poured hundreds of free Arcadia ‘bubbles’, Coronet Peak ski area manager Hamish McCrostie welcomed his first visitors and said ‘We’re open and have a great day’ to cheers from eager snowsports lovers.

“It’s so, so good to finally be open and our staff are really buzzing to get underway for the season,” he said.

The ski area opened with limited beginner, novice and intermediate terrain, with trails accessed from the Coronet Express and Meadows Express chairlifts, and two conveyor lifts.

Base building services up and running included rental, where the ski area’s new BYS rental system came into its own on the first day dealing with large groups of visiting schoolchildren.
Also open were the snowsports school, crèche, café, coffee bar, guest services and retail.

Mr McCrostie said snowmaking would continue at every opportunity with the ski area’s 211 snowguns ready to blast out more of the white stuff as temperatures allowed.

“We’ll open up more trails just as soon as we can. We’re looking forward to conditions improving as we go further into winter.”