One of Skyline's offshore luge sites in Tongyeong, South Korea.
What started as a single gondola on Queenstown Hill in 1967 has expanded to a multimillion-dollar business in seven countries, with more to come. Jane Phare reports.
Danny Luke remembers the thrill of sitting in a luge cart being towed up Queenstown Hill behind his grandfather’s car. It was the mid-1980s and Luke, about 6 at the time, would tear down the hill with his brothers to test the brakes and steering systems of the cart. From that moment the youngster was hooked.
It wasn’t until his grandfather (on his mother’s side), tourism pioneer Hylton Hensman, opened a luge in Queenstown in 1998 that Luke, by then a teenager, had his first real ride.
The earlier Queenstown hill runs weren’t just for fun. Hensman was always looking to improve design and look for new opportunities. With co-founders John Dumble and the late Cliff Broad, he took tourists up the steep Queenstown Hill to Bob’s Peak to admire the view and have a bite to eat at a newly-built chalet in the mid-1960s. By 1967, they had opened the first gondola.
But it was a steep hill in Rotorua that was the testing ground for the first luge. Hensman bought farmland on the side of Mt Ngongotaha in the early 80s with the idea of building a tourist attraction. Skyline Rotorua opened a gondola in 1985 and the luge in 1986, hence the testing of the luge carts by the founder’s grandsons.
Buoyed by the success of the two New Zealand sites, Hensman started looking for ideal sites overseas, opening the company’s first offshore site in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, in 2003.
Now his grandson, Danny Luke, has taken over that job as chief operating officer for Skyline Enterprises, 40 years after those thrilling test rides down Queenstown Hill.
It’s his job to run the operations of the two sites in New Zealand and six overseas — in Singapore, Wales, Korea, Malaysia, Canada and two in South Korea — and to scope out new sites.
Two of the current sites, Rotorua and Busan in Korea, have ziplines in addition to the luge. A zipline at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur site will open in May.
Skyline Enterprises is now a global gondola and luge company valued at more than $670 million, with an annual revenue of $211m and 1000 employees.
Luke started at the bottom, literally, working as a “lugie” — a luge operator — on Skyline Queenstown in 2003 before transferring to Mont-Tremblant to gain experience. After two seasons he relocated to the recently opened Sentosa Island luge in Singapore in 2006 as a team supervisor.
After that, it was the fast track: 2007, operations manager in Singapore; 2008, general manager of Mont-Tremblant during the summer season, and back to Singapore as operations manager for the rest of the year; 2011, general manager in Singapore; 2015, general manager of international developments and operations for the offshore sites at the company’s head office in Queenstown; 2020, focused on international development overseeing the building of a Skyline gondola and luge in South Korea in 2021, and another in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in 2023.
Late last year, Luke was appointed chief operations officer over a portfolio that is still growing. This month the company has received the go-ahead to build a $70m complex in Swansea, Wales, which will include a gondola, luge, restaurant and cafe, a zip line, mountain bike and walking tracks, a sky swing and an adventure playground.
He is currently scoping another site in County Louth in Ireland and says the company has strict criteria when considering sites.
First, there needs to be a whopping big hill. After that, a large domestic population and high visitor numbers, the right regulations in place, a decent lease for the land (all of Skylines sites are leased except for Rotorua) and a good partner are the other must-haves. That partner could be the landowner, the Government or the council, he says.
In the case of Swansea, the Welsh Government tipped in $8m of funding and, says Luke, the Swansea City Council was “extremely supportive and willing to help”, knowing the venture would bring jobs and tourism income to the region.
Money for the Swansea project will come from retained earnings and from a bank facility if needed.
Closer to home the two tracks at Rotorua have been replaced with five tracks, all different. The “fast” and “slow” tracks at Queenstown have been reconfigured so visitors can ride either.
A multimillion-dollar upgrade and expansion project at Queenstown led to a new 10-seater gondola opening in 2023, a new luge chairlift and now major plans to double the size of the existing restaurant, cafe and conference centre.
That site suffered a setback in September 2023 after Queenstown was hit with the highest 24-hour rainfall in 24 years, triggering a slip from the Ben Lomond Reserve, which sent mud and debris into Reavers Lane below. Forty-one residents were evacuated and some homes were left yellow or red stickered.
At the time the company’s chief executive, Geoff McDonald, acknowledged that excavation debris from the work site for Skyline’s new restaurant had contributed to the landslide, apologised to the council and worked to stabilise the site.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council, which leases the site to Skyline, filed charges against Skyline and two other companies for alleged breaches of the Resource Management Act.
The case is currently before the Queenstown District Court, so Luke cannot comment. But he says whatever the outcome it will not slow down the company’s expansion plans.
Skyline also owns considerable commercial property and visitor accommodation in New Zealand, and the Christchurch Casino.
Skyline Enterprises now has 800 shareholders, made up of Hensman family members, private investors, institutions and investment companies. A minimum shareholding is 4000 shares (currently trading at about $15.50 each) but although the company’s 34 million shares can be traded on the Unlisted Securities Exchange, they rarely change hands, Luke says.
The family connection is still strong. Hylton Hensman’s son Grant Hensman, Luke’s uncle, has been closely involved in the development of the company and the building of new luges.
He has been a board member since 1994 and currently chairs the Skyline International Luge Board.
Visitors numbers to the eight sites are now up to between 80% and 100% of pre-Covid levels and the total number of rides is increasing annually. In 2022/23 the company logged 6.9m rides globally, a figure that rose to 7.46m last year. Later this year the company expects to hit the 100 millionth luge ride across the business.
Says Luke: “Our board of directors are very ambitious. We’ve got a very popular product in the luge. We know how to own and operate these types of businesses so we are wanting to expand. There are a lot of opportunities internationally for us”.
In a screen-dominated age, he says the luge offers an opportunity for some thrills and excitement in the fresh air. And it’s multi-generational. Luke’s two daughters, aged 9 and 11, are skilled luge drivers and his 5-year-old son will soon be old enough to drive on his own.
“I used to ride with my grandfather, then I rode with my friends and my siblings and now I’m riding with my children.”
Jane Phare is a senior Auckland-based business, features and investigations journalist, former assistant editor of NZ Herald and former editor of the Weekend Herald and Viva.
Executive director of THL part of consortium, to take leave of absence.