The 40-strong South Korean ski team is staying in Ohakune for two months for extra training on Turoa Ski Field.
Local Knowledge NZ (LKNZ) Lodge manager Amanda Currie said having the team there was great except for the fact the Koreans spoke limited, if any, English: "So we're operating on daily sign language, which gets very funny at times."
Ms Currie said team members have their own kitchen which means they can cook their own special meals. They have huge bags of dried sardines and special dried cockroaches. The ingredients are "totally alien to what we eat," she said.
"But they are a lovely crew and their gear for up the mountain is spectacular, it's so colourful. The base team at Turoa were training them."
The ski team is preparing for the 2018 Winter Olympics, which will be held in PyeongChang, an eastern South Korean city, she said.
A South Korean newspaper story said earlier that though Korea is strong in ice events such as figure skating and short track, the team has some ground to make up on snow.
To prepare for the next Winter Olympics the South Korean Government is now backing the sport, hoping the ski team will have a better opportunity to do well.
Coach Toby Dawson, who is not with the team in New Zealand, has said the athletes' level is pretty low.
"They have been trying hard but it has all been out of their own pocket," he said.
"But with sponsorship and Government support, they can have full-time coaching and consistent coaching for the first time in their life," Dawson was quoted.