It’s school holidays, but where’s the snow?

Why families and tourists heading to the slopes could be left high and dry.

It’s an uphill battle for ski fields down south with a lack of snow fall.

This will come as bad news for many heading to the mountains these school holidays.

Alpine resorts instead have been relying on making snow until nature provides.

"The entire New Zealand ski industry's struggled with a very dry June," Coronet Peak Ski Area Manager Nigel Kerr said.

Thousands are heading south or coming from Australia for snow, but they might be disappointed.

"Well it’s not great," Meteorologist Angus Hines said. "Not huge accumulations of snow so far and not expecting too much in the next couple of weeks."

The snow fall at Coronet Peak is just 22cm and it's better at the Remarkables and Cardrona, up around 80 per cent. But Treble Cone is simply not open.

"The last couple of years the big four ski fields have all managed to be open by end of June and it seems like this time around they haven’t got everything up and running," Mr Hines said.

And lower down the island conditions are good for snow-making.

"The colder it gets the more we can make, when we’re going properly, we’re making about 18 tonne a minute of snow, "Mr Kerr said.

Ski fields becoming more creative to ensure they have a future.

"The goal here is to improve the breadth of product we offer year around. That means building facilities that are suitable," he said.

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