Queensland surfers Jodie Harris and Mick Frost couldn't see the waves through the fog on the south coast but had no trouble later skiing at Perisher in the Snowy Mountains on the best early season snow in a decade.
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Their camper van struggled to start after a minus 7 degree overnight stay at Jindabyne, where they swapped surf boards for skis on their way to Mount Baw Baw in Victoria.
''We got up at 7.30 yesterday at Broulee and you couldn't see the water, it was so steamy,'' Ms Foster said.
Cross-country skiers Josef and Susan Mach arrived days before Perisher opens on Saturday, a week ahead of the traditional Queens Birthday weekend opening, when up to 18,000 people will converge on the resort.
''The snow is beyond belief,'' said Mr Mach, who migrated from the Czech Republic in 1971 and grew up on cross-country skis.
He said minus 9 and minus 7 degrees temperatures overnight and successive frosts had prepared the ground for an exceptional season start.
The Hawkesbury couple cycle over summer to keep fit for cross-country skiing and were revelling along runs naturally groomed by the wind and sun around Charlotte Pass.
Escaping crowds on eerie-white trails, they feel they're the only human beings on the planet.
''You can almost hear the silence,'' Mrs Mach said. Perisher lodge owner Sally Duncan, of Jindabyne, said the snow cover was the best she'd seen in nine years.
Whatever the reason, Matisse Cowan, 3, of Jindabyne thought it was ideal for snowball throwing.
Every snowflake counts in the Snowy Mountains. Climate change and an explosion of international travel stoked by a high Aussie dollar is scraping the icing off the once-lucrative skiing industry.
Market researcher IBISWorld said in a ski-lift report snow days in the mountains were decreasing.
''Over the next five years, industry revenue is expected to continue the current slow growth path, to grow 0.5 per cent per annum to be worth $167.5 million in 2016-17.''
Perisher Resort spokesman Neil Thew said snow-making machines would add to the 30 centimetres of natural snow, helping to boost numbers.
Kosciusko Thredbo Resort spokeswoman Susie Diver said opening day would depend on weather and snow cover, probably, on June 6.
''There's some pretty inclement weather coming so we want to make sure we have a good enough base in case we get some rain and we'll open.''
Based on lift ticket sales, about 400,000 people attend Thredbo in a season.
At historic Kiandra, where skiing first began in Australia, Canberra skiers and bushwalkers are being lured back to a refurbished lodge, which will re-open next week.
Historic project co-ordinator at Kiandra, Jennifer Hewitson, said a healthy occupancy rate at Wolgol Hut, which was built in 1961, six kilometres from Mount Selwyn resort, would support a case for restoring other historic buildings.
