THIS could have been a story with a really ba-a-a-a-a-d ending. Instead, it is a warm and woolly tale about the greatest sheep rescue in New Zealand's history.

And trust us, there have been plenty.



Picture the scene. It has been snowing like crazy in New Zealand all week. Snowing and snowing and snowing some more.

While Australian ski resorts struggle to kick start the season due to lack of snow, Kiwi skifields are struggling to open because there's too much snow to clear.



Meanwhile, a farmer near Lake Wanaka on the South Island is missing three sheep. We'll return to the sheep in a minute.



At Treble Cone ski resort, just above Lake Wanaka, there's been so much snow this week, ski patrollers have been doing extra "control" work. That's snow talk for checking the snowpack for avalanche danger and setting off small slides before the skifield opens to the public.



So three patrollers are up there at the top of Treble Cone's Saddle Basin when they see a small mound in the snow. There's been heaps of fresh snow recently. Everything is covered. Why is there a mound there? There's no logical reason for a mound in that particular spot.



On closer inspection, the mound has wool. It also has eyes. Astonishingly, the mound has a heartbeat. The mound is a sheep and the sheep is alive. Even more astonishingly, two more mounds are discovered. And all three mounds are alive. All three mounds are sheep.



Treble Cone marketing manager Nick Noble has no doubt the patrollers found the sheep just in time.



"We found them at 2000m above sea level in about two metres of snow," he said. "We got another 15 centimetres of snow yesterday and some more last night. I think they would have been buried by now."



Finding three live sheep was one thing. Transporting them down the hill to safety was another. Ski patrollers use sleds, which some Australians colloquially call "blood buckets", to ferry injured skiers and snowboarders off the hill. Why not use the sleds for sheep?



Easier sled than done. First, it took six burly Kiwi blokes to dig out each sheep. Then, after a bit of shepherding, they had to strap ‘em in and ski ‘em down.

When patrollers got them to Treble Cone's base lodge at about 1260 metres above sea level, resort staff dried them out, put blankets on them and gave the poor blighters a bit of a breather to recover from the ordeal. They then put them in the back of a ute and drove them down to the farmer.



"The sheep had particularly long coats and looked like they hadn't been shorn," Nick Noble said. "A lot of sheep spend summer up here munching alpine pastures. Looks like these ones might have been missing for 18 months."

The sheep were eventually returned to their owner. His name is Charlie Ewing. Can you believe that? A sheep farmer called "Ewing"? Of course his name was Ewing. His neighbour probably keeps cows and is called "Mooing".



As wild weather sweeps New Zealand with hurricane-force winds, flooding, and snow falling to sea level, it's good to hear one piece of positive news from this storm.



The other good news is the state of the snowpack. When Treble Cone opens on June 27, it will be all systems go, all runs open, and hopefully no more sheep as obstacles.



We suggested to Nick Noble that the resort might perhaps run a competition to rename the run where the sheep where found. He said that wasn't a bad idea and he'd think about it.



We couldn't think of a particularly clever name, but then we thought, hey, scientists did clone a sheep a few years back. Maybe they could name the ski run "Treble Clone"?

What do you think they should name the run? Continue the conversation @antsharwood @newscomauHQ

