Ski Fields

The Sugar Bowl Express chairlift at The Remarkables will open this Saturday 1 August, giving visitors lift access to the Sugar Bowl Basin for the first time this season.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts chief executive Jono Dean said the new car park booking system helped ease the traffic congestion.

The new booking system would be free this season and would operate for the busiest 10 of the 17 weekends that the mountain is open in winter.

The Remarkables will continue its daily operations daily for a further one more week after a busier-than-expected school holiday period. 

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts have updated its new carpark booking system following an uproar from the public.

CEO Ian Jackson says forward bookings are good but Covid has halved staff numbers on the operator’s ski fields.

The Remarkables would be open daily for two weeks during the July school holidays until Sunday 19 July, then weekends only.

Mt Ruapehu has officially opened for the season, with snow arriving in time for the July school holidays.

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern, tourism minister Kelvin Davis and Tourism New Zealand chief executive Stephen England-Hall will attend today’s opening of the ski season at Cardrona Alpine Resort.

Booking.com says Kiwis are showing a promising appetite for winter travel and recreation.

After years of international growth, operators are pinning hopes on the domestic market but losses appear inevitable.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts aims to limit ski field numbers to 4500 a day at Whakapapa and 3700 at Turoa, says RAL chief executive Jono Dean.

The first major snowfall of the season marks good news for the Southern Lakes ski areas, says Destination Queenstown.

The move comes as ski fields prepare to open and enables the hard-hit events sector to plan for a restriction-free recovery.

More than 2000 people headed up Mt Ruapehu over the long weekend to sightsee and ride the Sky Waka.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts is planning to open its first ski area on Mt Ruapehu in late June or early July, says RAL chief executive Jono Dean.

NZSki, RAL and Cardrona Alpine Resorts say they have agreed level 2 guidelines with the government.

People will be allowed to travel for tourism and operators such as ski fields could be open.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts operational team members have commenced general maintenance work on Mt Ruapehu in preparation for the winter ski season, says RAL chief executive Jono Dean.

The decision paves the way for the consolidation of ski field ownership in the wider Wanaka area.

Cardrona Alpine Resort near Wanaka has postponed its summer opening after a dump of snow this week.

Mt Hutt has taken out the title of New Zealand’s best ski resort for the fifth year in a row at the World Ski Awards in Austria.

Ground has officially broken on the new Sugar Bowl chairlift at The Remarkables Ski Area in Queenstown.

A group of 35 Chinese Winter Olympic Games staff took the slopes of Mt Ruapehu in a bid to hone their rescue knowledge and techniques in time for the World Cup and the Winter Olympic Games in 2022.

The operator has promoted its Whakapapa GM Jono Dean to take over from Ross Copland.

Cardrona Alpine Resort plans to have its first chairlift installed into the 500 hectare Soho Basin extension in time for winter 2022.

NZSki funding for The Kea Conservation Trust will see the body extend its monitoring efforts from The Remarkables ski field across Ben Lomond from early 2020.

A collaborative mountain effort has led to the establishment of New Zealand’s first-ever Spring Ski Week.

Wayfare’s Cardrona Alpine Resort Limited has sought clearance from the Commerce Commission to buy Treble Cone ski field for $7.6m.

Visitor spending in some of NZ’s snow regions fell sharply after unusually mild weather.

A police and NZ Transport Agency check of Queenstown ski field transport operators over the weekend found a dozen operators were not complying with the rules.

Queenstown Resort College has secured naming rights to the Winter Games.

Kiwis should continue to buy annual ski passes despite this year’s patchy season, according to new research.

The money will go towards long-term planning to foster sustainable tourism growth.

Treble Cone will open today but skiing and snowboarding will be limited to groomed snow on the Easy Rider and the Platter runs.

Chris Jolly Outdoors is expanding its portfolio of products after recruiting a new operations manager and drawing on his diverse background that spans tourism, rock and roll touring and survivalism.

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Tūroa’s beginner ski field opens today from 9am with the lower slopes of Alpine Meadow ready for skiing and sledding.

A sluggish Australian economy and plunging house prices will be felt on Kiwi slopes, says the bank’s chief economist.

Treble Cone Ski Area has delayed its opening due to low levels of snow during June.

Cardrona is on track to add a second skifield to its stable having made a long-expected offer to buy Treble Cone.

Visitors have been flocking to New Zealand’s skifields as the 2019 season gets underway with some of the country’s leading resorts having pumped millions of dollars into infrastructure improvements over the summer.

Queenstown’s NZSki Limited has hired Meghan Blair to be its new general manager of sales and marketing.

The Department of Conservation has rejected criticism that it was cause of delays to NZSki’s $16m chairlift upgrade at The Remarkables.

Paul Anderson blames a lack of “direction, support and certainty” from DOC for the delay to The Remarkables upgrade.

A game that educates Australian travel trade about New Zealand’s ski regions forms a key part of Tourism New Zealand’s freshly launched $1.55m Australian winter campaign. 

Borders, bikers, walkers and riders were out in force on Saturday for Mt Hutt Ski Area’s 2019 Open Day.

A new winter profile of Queenstown Airport’s passengers has been released, showing an uplift of 5% in numbers for the 2018 season.

Six of the iwi’s businesses have formed a partnership to help fund the $25m project.

Recent heavy snowfalls and cold temperatures has prompted Cardrona Alpine Resort to open for beginner skiing and snow play.