Mt Ruapehu: First bid on the table for part of Ruapehu Alpine Lifts

Turoa skifield. Photo / File

By RNZ

A new entity wants to set up a publicly owned company to buy the Turoa skifield on Mt Ruapehu and its assets in Ohakune.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) currently owns the Turoa operation, as well as Whakapapa skifield, but the business collapsed last October.

Since then, administrators have been working to find a long term solution for the future of the skifields.

John Sandford is leading Turoa Alpine Ltd and is confident shareholders will be able to raise the $8 million to $10m needed to purchase Turoa.

He said the entity would focus on having wider business and community engagement in the Ohakune area.

While he was not at liberty to give the names of others involved in the entity, Sandford told Nine to Noon they included the likes of local business owners and residents.

If successful in its bid, the entity’s intention, over time, would be to allow other people the opportunity to run various commercial activities, such as retail and hospitality, on the mountain, he said.

“Our focus ultimately ends up being on making sure that the actual facilities are fit for purpose, meet DoC requirements and all other health and safety requirements and work properly, and [to] make sure that, the infrastructure, if you like, works well for the business.”

Sandford said while RAL had operated profitably for “many, many years”, it had not been well enough capitalised to weather some bad seasons more recently.

Turoa Alpine Ltd’s intention would be to have enough money in the bank to “be able to operate from this year and the next two years - so three years - with three bad seasons”.

Records showed that Ruapehu and Turoa had not had three bad seasons in a row, he said.

“But we’re actually budgeting on actually having three bad seasons in a row.”

Asked about how Turoa Alpine Ltd would address the issue of life pass holders if its bid was successful, Sandford acknowledged the details would need to be worked out.

“Whatever proposal we come up with, we will respect the current situation of life pass holders and work together with their representatives - and even individually if necessary - to come up with something that may not please everyone, but hopefully will please the majority.”

However, a group of life pass holders want whoever purchases RAL to retain it as one, connected operation.

Life pass holder representative Sam Clarkson told Nine to Noon people wanted to have the freedom to use both ski fields under one pass.

“We believe the medicine that Turoa needs is exactly the same medicine that Whakapapa needs and that if we are to apply that medicine, we will do better on both sides of the mountain for all mountain users.”

The life pass holders have their own proposal for the ski fields to be community owned and not for profit.