Ruapehu's $30m upgrade for faster rides, better snow

An artist's impression of a new chairlift to be built at Whakapapa skifield

Mt Ruapehu's Whakapapa and Turoa skifields are to receive a $30 million upgrade to give skiers and snowboarders faster lift rides and better snow.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL), operators of the skifields, announced the upgrade yesterday, saying it would take place over the next two years and was the biggest single investment in a ski area in New Zealand.

The last few years have seen heavy investment in skifields in the North and South Islands, despite Mother Nature not always producing the desired amount of snow.

But skifield operators see plenty of potential in a country where only 8-10 per cent of the population ski or snowboard and a growing market lying just across the Tasman.

They also believe the whims of the weather can increasingly be controlled with snow-making technology.

RAL has already spent more than $15 million on upgrades in the past five years and now plans to build three new high-speed chairlifts - two at Whakapapa and one at Turoa - as well as install new snow-making equipment at Turoa.

The bulk of the project is to be funded by the sale of 7000 life passes, which start at $3875 and give buyers access to both skifields for the rest of their lives.

The project is subject to resource consent, but RAL has begun discussions with affected parties and is confident the process will go smoothly.

Marketing manager Mike Smith said the company hoped to begin work on the first two lifts next summer, in time for the 2007 ski season.

The planned chairlifts are expected to cut queues and lift times significantly, travelling at 5m per second rather than the current 1-2m per second, and having much greater carrying capacity.

For example, the High Noon T-bar at Turoa would be replaced by a 1.4km six-seater chairlift carrying 3200 people per hour.

As a result daily ride times would drop by a quarter of an hour on a quiet day and up to half an hour on a busy day when queues are longer.

Mr Smith said the long-term plan for the skifields was to reduce the number of lifts to between two and four high-speed, high-capacity lifts that gave access to all major trails.

Mr Smith said snow-making technology was improving all the time and last year had allowed skiers to enjoy good snow on the lower area of Whakapapa despite a particularly warm winter. "Without snow-managing and snow-making, we wouldn't have skied that [area] hardly at all."