Rotorua ride lifts capacity

Skyline Skyrides' $10 million upgraded gondola system will be running next month, one of many tourism developments under way in Rotorua.

Between January last year and December next year, the Rotorua visitor industry will have spent more than $100 million on new products and redevelopments.

Skyline Skyrides, Te Puia, the Agrodome and Rainbow Springs are among those reinvesting.

Skyline Skyrides' new gondola system was designed in Austria and is the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

It will start operating next month and will be officially opened at a function in November.

The old gondola, which has served Skyline Skyrides for 20 years, will be pulled down and sold.

The $6 million system features eight-seater cabins. They move faster than the current system and can move 2000 passengers an hour, triple the present capacity.

Finishing touches are being put on larger gondola terminals at the top and bottom of Mt Ngongotaha.

Skyline Skyrides' general manager Neville Nicholson said the tourism boom had forced the attraction to take the plunge and undergo a huge revamp.

The new gondolas should be able to cater for expected tourism numbers for the next 15 years.

"We realised if we were going to put an investment back into our product, we had to make it worthwhile."

The expansion will see the creation of jobs, including gondola operators and food and beverage staff, although exact numbers have not been completed.

- NZPA