Fun on the slopes as Turoa opens

Jason Price spent a freezing night in his car so he could be among the first snowboarders on Turoa's slopes yesterday.

The Torbay 18-year-old plans to spend part of the season working at a ski rental store in Ohakune, the rest of it will see him carving the piste.

Mr Price, with 200 keen skiers and snowboarders, enjoyed the limited but fun Alpine Meadow run and 80cm base when Turoa opened for the season yesterday.

"I spent a bit of time working at Snow Planet in Auckland so it's nice to be on some real snow for once. It's not too bad for the first day but hopefully we'll get a bit more snow, hopefully about a metre by the weekend."

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts spokesman Mike Smith said Turoa's Movenpick, Parklane and High Flyer chairlifts should be available for skiers on Sunday.

But the mountain's High Noon Express chairlift is not likely to be ready until the end of July after a tower on the 1.4km-long, six-seater chairlift buckled when the towers and cables were de-iced on Monday.

Mr Smith said the head of the tower was badly damaged and repairs would cost up to $100,000.

The $13 million lift was opened in 2007, although it was out of action for the first few days after a massive ice build-up automatically shut down the machinery.

Mr Smith said the top of the field, which the High Noon Express serviced normally, was not skiable for the first two weeks of the season anyway but a southerly storm, due early next week, would have brought enough snow to allow it to open.

He said Whakapapa was due to open on June 26.

Its new cafe facilities, replacing the cafe that was burned to the ground by an arsonist last year, should be completed by late next month.

Last year 453,000 people visited Turoa and Whakapapa with 30,000 of those from Australia.