It's a tale of two continents as we approach the shortest day and the start of winter 2017 in the southern hemisphere.
After a universally 'good' start to the 2017 season with resorts opening early in late May in South America and early June in Australia, and even some good snowfalls in southern Africa, this week sees the first reports of a delayed opening day – in New Zealand, whilst in South America there are reports of up to 60cm of snow in the last 24 hours at ski areas in Chile.
It's Treble Cone ski area in New Zealand which was scheduled to open this weekend which has announced postponement to its season start. It says that unseasonably warm weather" has arrived less than a week after fresh snow was falling.
However there's been more heavy snowfall in South America, Portillo, which officially opens this weekend coming too, is all set to do so with another 60cm/2 feet of pre-season snow falling in the past 24 hours.
Other south American ski areas are also looking good. Valle Nevado, which opened nearly a month early in late May after big pre-season snowfalls has reported another 50cm of fresh snow too and there's been 30cm/a foot of snow or more at most other South American ski areas since the weekend.