School holidays across most of the country have come to an end just as ski resorts welcomed the biggest dumping of powder in years.
But the much-publicised cold snap will not be wasted, with international visitors flocking to the high country in Australia’s south east.
“Thredbo has seen a steep increase in Australians of ethnic background enjoying a snow holiday,” said Thredbo Resort's Angus Thomson.
“The magic of the snow is something all families fall in love with when they come.”
Jose Champsaur and his family have spent the last year studying in Canberra and before heading back to native Panama, they pencilled in their first trip to the mountains.
“We’re from the tropics so you would never expect to get anything like this over there,” Mr Champsaur said.
It's their four-year-old daughter, Emily, who got the most joy out of the mid-week trek, taking in the most of the winter wonderland and dressing her first snowman.
“It’s just real great for my daughter [and] for me it is an amazing experience,” said Emily’s mother Monica.
Another family had travelled all the way from Indonesia after hearing the reports of “blizzard conditions”.
“The children are very excited about it and we heard that this week is a good time to come,” mother-of-two Deviani Widjhaa said while waiting patiently for her children to put on their skis for the first time.
After a fairly dismal start to the season resorts across the south east have been able to wind back snow producing, and rely on the natural product.
Thredbo has received at 60cm of fresh snow since Thursday with Perisher gifted with 56cm over the last week.
Victoria has seen less powder with 4cm on Mt Buffalo, 25 on Mt Stiring and 17cm on Mt St Gwinea over the last few days.
Another cold front on the way is set to bring more snowfall to Victoria, Tasmania, the ACT and New South Wales.
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