A snow plough clears a path near the Sky Waka gondola base on Whakapapa ski field, on Mt Ruapehu.
A snow plough clears a path near the Sky Waka gondola base on Whakapapa ski field, on Mt Ruapehu.
Whakapapa has clarified its refund policy after leaving gondola visitors hanging.
Unpredictable conditions are part of a winter visit to Ruapehu. Recently guests of the Sky Waka Gondola have complained that refund terms have been equally hard to navigate.
In emails seen by the Herald, Ruapehu staff have been telling guests the company’s financial circumstances have meant less flexibility to issue refunds.
Opened in 2019, the Sky Waka is a 1.8 km cable car in the Tongariro National Park.
Popular, even with non-skiers, it carries up to the Knoll Ridge Chalet at an altitude of 2020m. However, with blizzards and high winds, there have been times when it has been unable to run, leaving visitors high and dry.
RAL’s terms of service say they will not refund passengers because the tickets are “open-dated”, meaning visitors can always come back another day.
Aucklander Doug Chetwynd was visiting the maunga last month with friends from South Australia, when he suggested the gondola trip.
Visiting Whakapapa Village on August 21, the party weren’t sure the lifts would be running as the mountain was experiencing high winds.
There were “ski stands being blown down the hill,” said Chetwynd, but mountain staff still sold them two adult tickets at $59 each.
By the time they got to the Waka, the visitors were told operations were closed and they would not be issuing refunds. The staff told the guests RAL’s financial situation meant they would have to be “very firm when it comes to refund requests”.
Customer services said their inability to issue a refund was “no means a refusal through malice” and part of a “much larger picture” at the company.
Chetwynd and his friends were told to sell or reuse the tickets before mid-October.
“It was pretty embarrassing having to go through this process,” says Chetwynd, adding the experience left a “bad taste” after many positive experiences at Ruapehu.
He was not the only visitor to notice a hardening in the ski operators attitude to refunds.
Another tourist said they were disappointed by the mountain’s inflexibility. They described their ordeal via the New Zealand Travel Tips facebook page after a two-day blizzard stopped their visit.
”I find it odd that we couldn’t get our Sky Waka gondola rides refunded, isn’t it rather unfair?”
Whakapapa's Sky Waka takes visitors on a scenic ride about the world-heritage-listed Tongariro National Park.
RAL clarifies Waka refunds
A spokesperson for Ruapehu Alpine Lifts says the no-refund policy has been in place for many years.
RAL said they updated their booking website to more clearly reflect their ‘no-refunds’ policy.
They said that there was no staff directive to be more stringent than usual in issuing refunds and it was independent of their ongoing liquidation.
“Sky Waka passes are nonrefundable as they can be used throughout the season and are not sold for a specific date,” RAL said in a statement.
“The terms and conditions are made clear to guests prior to and throughout the purchase process. We don’t determine when people will use their tickets and as a result, provide them with true flexibility, this flexibility means that we cannot provide a refund.”
The visitors from South Australia would be given their money back for their unused Sky Waka but any future refunds were at the discretion of RAL.
“We do assess refund requests on an individual case by case basis and unfortunately in this instance, the guest did not initially receive a satisfactory outcome which has now been rectified,” the operator said.
A cached copy of Ruapehu Alpine Lifts Terms & Conditions website from June 2022 did not explicitly mention the Sky Waka refunds policy, but that passes for use “any time” would not be refundable.
Despite being placed formally into liquidation this year, RAL was kept on as mountain operators for the 2023 Whakapapa and Tūroa ski season following a government grant.
RAL chief executive Jono Dean said they enjoyed low-key celebration, with twilight skiing and reduced anniversary passes.
Celebration events were attended by close to 14,000 skiers this weekend at both ski fields and $70 midweek passes were also well subscribed, an RAL spokesperson said.
