The event, part of the Audi quattro Winter Games NZ, will includes two Para snowboard banked slalom events over two days of competition.

Today sees the World Para Snowboard Southern Hemisphere Cup take place.

It will followed by the start of the 2017-2018 World Cup season tomorrow as athletes prepare for next year's Winter Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang.

The United States have the largest team with 19 athletes and is expected to perform strongly after taking seven medals in 10 events at the 2017 World Championships in Big White in Canada.

Among those is Mike Minor, who will debut after a successful 2016-2017 campaign that saw him win two World Championship medals - gold in snowboard-cross and silver in banked slalom in the men’s SB-UL. 

He concluded the season with the World Cup overall crystal globe, finishing top of the rankings in both events.

Team-mate and overall World Cup winner Evan Strong heads into Treble Cone as the strong favourite in the men’s SB-LL2 category. 

The 30-year-old is looking to bounce back from the disappointment of missing the banked slalom podium at the World Championships.

His closest competitor is expected to be Japan’s Gurimu Narita, who had an outstanding season and was the snowboarder who kept Strong off the podium in Big White.

America's Mike Shea will also battle for a podium spot over the weekend.

Another US competitor, Mike Schultz, the banked slalom World Championships runner-up, is the one to beat in the men’s SB-LL1 category.

The women’s SB-LL1 is set to be a US duel between World Cup third overall Nicole Roundy and Amy Purdy, the bronze medallist in the event at Big White 2017.

Australia’s World Championships bronze medallist Joany Badenhorst is the faviourite for the women’s SB-LL2.