The winter ski season officially gets underway today to much excitement, as well as relief.

Mt Hutt and Coronet Peak are opening today, and the Remarkables open next Saturday, but recent bouts of warm weather looked to spoil the party for skiers and snowboarders.

NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson said things were looking spectacular on Mt Hutt, until the weather shift four days ago.

He said the ridges have been stripped back because of fierce norwesters, but there's still good snow.

Coronet Peak ski area manager Ross Copland said the cooler weather has arrived in the nick of time.

"The weather that we had knocked us around a wee bit - we certainly lost a bit of snow with the rain that we had, but the weather has fortunately turned to the South East, and it's cooling down all the time and we're starting to see some snow falls down to 200 metres."