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Waiorau Ski Sub Zone Gondola

History/Background:

The late 1960’s and early 1970’s saw a rapid economic decline in Cardrona’s economy reflecting in population loss. This had a dramatic effect on community life. The school bus was lost and rural delivery reduced to two days a week, a no win situation for young families. The council and Transit decided to close the Crown Range road in winter citing maintenance and cost of keeping the road open. Gates were installed and Cardrona’s future looked bleak.

 

As a first step to reverse this decline Mary and I purchased the deteriorating historical Cardrona Hotel with the conservation and restoration of this as our focal point in the attempt to breathe life back into the Cardrona Valley. Dr Dennis and Olwyn Pezaro joined us in purchasing the historic Post Office next door to the hotel, as part of our plan to preserve the history, using this as a spring board to revitalise Cardrona village.

 

The next step was the purchase of Mount Cardrona Station in 1970. I then applied for a ski area zoning on the top basin. This was given and the area is where Cardrona Ski Resort is today.

A change in Zone was also applied for the land around the Hotel and Post Office so that it would allow for accommodation for staff and crafts people. The Council gave a variation to this, which is the top town today.

 

Ten years after this an application was made for rezoning of land near the entranceway to the winter facilities to accommodate staff and visitors, to reduce winter travel time. The Council zoned the land Rural Residential. This land is now owned by Mount Cardrona Station.

 

Both the top town and Mount Cardrona Station zones are under going Plan changes.

 

The development of the downhill skiing, Nordic Skiing and Cold Product Testing have all shown their positive effect on Cardrona. They have turned the decline of the Valley around. It has seen the road sealed road not only to Wanaka but Queenstown too. The gates are gone, a five day rural delivery service and school bus service  is available to all families  and many landowners are beginning to be able to operate businesses from their sites based on the visitors that are brought to the area mainly by the preserved historic hotel or the skiing activities..

 

Rise of the Snow Park

 

New Zealand is a country known for doing a lot with a little. From the good old number 8 wire mentality to our world beating sporting champions, we consistently box above our weight grade on the world stage. In 2001 the Lee Family decided to embark on a mission to explore the untapped and rapidly developing freestyle Snowboard and skiing market.

 

 This was done by turning a seldom-used T-Bar into the world’s first dedicated terrain park resort, Snow Park NZ. The concept received huge support    from the wider snow community and captured imaginations globally. No one had developed a dedicated terrain park resort. New Zealand had fallen behind international resorts with the level and quantity of terrain available for freestyle skiing and snow boarding. Snow Park was going to change all this. With our commitment to having 100% man made snow to us being the first resort in New Zealand to purchase a World Cup specification halfpipe builder, we were going to provide the missing element in the New Zealand winter sports scene.

 

When opened in 2003   the Snow Park opened with 6,500 visitors. Snow Park experienced an average growth rate during its first four years of 38% per year. Snow Park now receives over 36,000 day visits every year and has brought the international freestyle spotlight to New Zealand. While New Zealand has a fantastic international reputation for its back country powder and friendly fun resorts, its freestyle reputation was struggling and was the missing link for many international travellers. That coupled with Snow Park extensive snow making made us a secure investment for the off season winter enthusiast.

 

The Snow Park now plays host to the biggest Snow Board and Skiing events on the New Zealand snow sports calendar including the Burton Open, Billabong Slope Style Jam and Volcom Peanut Butter Jam to name a few. All these events draw in elite riders from around the world (which in turn attracts the fans). Snow Park regularly features in international Snow Sports magazines and through the likes of the Burton Open feature on international sports television. Snow Park is known for a high standard of quality with the terrain and ease of access to the slopes from its base facilities.

 

Snow Park also receives 3 times more international media Coverage than every other resort in New Zealand Combined (NZ as a country was 66th). 18th in the 2006 year end Transworld media poll which evaluate all international Snow Board print media coverage. Snow Park has graced the cover of 15 magazines with as many feature articles profiling not just the Snow Park but the wider Southern Lakes community.

 

Before the 2006 Torino Olympics Snow Park was home to 12 National Snowboard teams from all over the world. The USA snowboard team ranked us as having the best half pipe they have used worldwide. All medallists at the 2006 Olympic winter games Snow Board Halfpipe trained at Snow Park in the lead up to those games.

 

Snow Park has become a template for developments all over the world, with versions of the Snow Park popping up in North America, Europe and Scandinavia. And this growth and focus on freestyle snow sports will only strengthen Snow Park as we are still the only dedicated Southern Hemisphere Terrain Park.

 

Some key reason for the need of the gondola includes:

 

a. Environmental change CO2

While there is still much scepticism about Global Warming or Climate Change, world pressure currently insists we must focus our efforts on Carbon Reduction.

 

The amount of CO2 will only increase as we receive more visitors to our facilities. Environmental pressure is mounting and we need facilities such as Gondolas, which can be run on renewable or green energy sources.

 

b. Dust

Tourism is a demanding business where tourist’s decisions are lead by fashions and personal values.

 

A gondola while having some visual impact does little to disturb the landscape it passes over, unlike roads the potential footprint on the land would be in the vicinity of 1000sq metes, while the existing footprint of the access road is more like 100,000 sq meters. While the road would remain reduced usage would allow vegetation to grow more freely without the impact of dust and with reduced road maintenance.

 

c. Visual pollution

One only needs to take a drive on sunny Sunday during the winter months to see the amount of dust that pours off the ski resort access road. This is not a positive visual impact on our landscape; it is not the postcard image we sell of our area.    While the road will remain the use of the Gondola as the key access for skiers and boarders will reduce the amount of dust generated by vehicles accessing the mountain each day. 

               

Gondolas regularly feature on Postcards internationally from Europe through to the Americas. We are tourism based area, and we must ensure the future of this tourism and assess our options for sustainability into the future.

 

 

Most of all our reason behind the gondola is to ensure Safety

 

As we continue to develop better methods to maintain and develop our roads, one factor remains ever present, the fact the New Zealand has very few snow covered roads, and to un-experienced drivers, this poses a huge risk. Even experienced drivers have been in major incidents on our mountain roads.

 

It is an issue not just for resort visitors, but also for Staff. Some staff have found the drive to work a horrific experience if the wrong driver gets behind the wheel, while we do make every effort to ensure our staff are driven to work by experienced and responsible drivers, social factors and complacency always have the possibility of having an effect on the driver’s reactions and judgment.

 

What Price do we place on a person’s life? While only one road fatality, which was not attributed to the road, has occurred to date on the Pisa Range access road, increased visitor numbers will see the probability of a fatal accident occurring increase. Putting people up mountain roads is not a necessary evil. We can provide safer access; therefore we should provide safer access.

 

 

Continued Resort Development

 

For well over 30 years the southern lakes have been News Zealand’s, and more recently the world’s favourite winter playground. This evolution has not been a natural occurrence, for years visionaries and developers have strived to continually improve the product that our winter resorts offer. Whether this is through customer service, better slope maintenance equipment (snow making and grooming) and now environmental protection and safety are key to the people we attract.

 

In the past 5 years we have seen a boom of development with over 20 million dollars spent in the southern lakes alone. This development has run along side with the growth of the southern lakes area and has seen incredible developments.

 

The Southern Lakes ski areas bring over 92 million every[1] year to the New Zealand economy with minimal cost to the tax payer, unlike some large events such as the Americas Cup. The Direct Spend Americas Cup Contribution to the GDP ($m) for 2002-3 was $158.3[2] , comparatively the

Direct Spend 2005 (National) from Snow Sports related visitors to the Southern lakes Ski Areas was $161m (does not include holiday packages which are estimated at a further $21m)[3].

We have been supported over the past twenty years to grow and develop our on mountain facilities and the time has come to upgrade the access to the resorts. We provide a world-class experience on the mountain, but a less than world-class access with many risks and personal stresses to our customers and their families.

 

 

 

 

 

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