Nearly 1200 people headed up Mt Ruapehu for the first weekend of the new ski season.
"It was a great weekend," Ruapehu Alpine Lifts commercial executive manager Simon Dickson said. "A lot of people were up there for Mardi Gras and had a play around ... it's been a nice weekend to open."
The weekend saw about 700 people coming up the mountain on Saturday and 450 on Sunday.
"We started off with a bit of a south-westerly wind in the morning," Mr Dickson said, adding that it cleared to blue skies.
Only the beginner slopes on Whakapapa and Turoa skifields are open , while the other tracks wait on conditions and more snow, he said.