Southern Africa and New Zealand’s 2024 Seasons Start – Kind Of
Southern Africa and New Zealand’s 2024 Seasons Start – Kind Of
Published : 01-Jun-2024 04:20
New Zealand's Whakapapa ski area has opened a small area of snow in its Happy Valley area, which is served by a conveyor lift, the first lift-accessed skiing in the country this year.
"Please note that only a section of Happy Valley is open for skiing and snowboarding; the rest (except our sledding area) is still closed. Keep in mind that we don't offer any rentals or lessons for today and tomorrow, so please bring your own gear," a resort statement explains.
It's a similar limited picture in Southern Africa where Lesotho's Afriski resort has pronounced that the ski season has begun. However, with warm weather over the past few weeks, the reality does not yet seem to match the exiting images of skiers and boarders on their social media posts., Instead there are unlinked piles of machine made snow so far. However, the first real snow of the winters and much lower temperatures for consistent snowmaking are forecast for the next few days.
Meanwhile Australia's ski areas have had a dusting of snow. The season there is set to start in a week's time.
Things are looking much more promising in South America where most ski areas in Chile have opened for the season already after metres of May snowfall, several weeks early. South America's largest by uplift, Catedral near Bariloche, will open next weekend.
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