Cardrona gets go-ahead to become New Zealand’s biggest ski field with new lift

All Cardrona’s Christmases have come at once after it was given the go ahead to start building a new six-seater high-speed chairlift. The Wānaka skifield says it will start work on the new lift into Soho Basin this summer, which will make it New Zealand’s largest ski area.

The Cardrona Alpine Resort hopes to uplift its first Soho Basin skiers in winter 2025.

“New skiable terrain in New Zealand is incredibly rare, and we’re so stoked to finally be able to give people the news they want,” says general manager of Cardrona and Treble Cone, Laura Hedley.

The new lift adds 150 rugby fields to the resort, previously part of the Soho Ski Area, a lift-free backcountry snowfield.

Increasing the lift-accessed terrain by a quarter, at a projected size of 615 hectares Cardrona says the lift will make it the the largest commercially operated ski area in New Zealand.

Busy car parking at the Cardrona Ski Field, Wanaka. Photo / Thomas Bywater

The lift, which does not currently have a name, will be the first since the addition of the Willow’s Quad chairlift in 2021.

The new six-seater express chair will be installed by Doppelmayr New Zealand and will have capacity to uplift 3000 skiers and snowboarders an hour.

“It’s not often new skiable terrain is opened up in Aotearoa New Zealand,” says, Garreth Hayman CEO of Doppelmayr, who is looking forward to getting started on the two-year project.

In anticipation, Cardrona says it will be expanding car parking and other on-mountain facilities. Parking became a point of contention for skiers last year, after the resort implemented a booking system during the July school holidays as a way to manage numbers. A combination of winter crowds and closed runs meant the skifield “got the numbers wrong” during early rush of visitors.

Cardrona is to start work on an eighth lift in Soho Basin this summer, which it says will make it New Zealand's largest ski field. Photo / Supplied

Facility upgrades will help manage visitor numbers the expansion is expected to attract, Hedley says.

“We’ll be upgrading our snow-making, food and beverage, retail, and other carparking offerings to make sure we continue to deliver a great experience at Cardrona with the addition of Soho Basin,” she says.

A spokesperson for the ski area says the scheduled works over the next two years are not expected to impact summer operations and mountain karting and biking will be open as usual.