New Zealanders flock to slopes for first day of ski season

New Zealand Prime minister Jacinda Ardern visited Queenstown on Friday to launch the start of the 2020 snow season and encourage domestic tourism, as their international borders remain closed. Local media reported around 2,000 people travelled to the ski-fields, with some camping out from Thursday night to be the first on the slopes.

NEW ZEALAND TOURISM MINISTER, KELVIN DAVIS said "Queenstown, they're really wanting us to deliver something that we can't actually deliver at the moment, that is the reopening of the borders and that's a decision that is happening at a higher level and until that really happens and we have international visitors come back we'll continue to hear that frustration but it's a decision that we, it has to be made when both governments feel that it's safe to do so."

Despite the enthusiasm in Queenstown at the launch, Ardern warned that the region will feel significant impacts from the lack of international tourists.