One ski field sold, one to go

A conditional agreement has been reached to buy one of Mt Ruapehu’s two beleaguered ski fields, but the other one seems to have been left on the shelf.
Pure Tūroa is expected to purchase the ski field on the south-western side of the mountain for $1, with the Crown taking a quarter stake.
However, as this went to press the deal was still dependent on securing a concession to operate within the Tongariro National Park from the Department of Conservation.
Meanwhile, Whakapapa, on south-western slopes, has just one suitor, in the shape of a proposal by the Ruapehu Ski fields Stakeholders Association (RSSA).
Just before Christmas the only potential buyer, Whakapapa Holdings Ltd (WHL), bowed out. WHL spokesperson Dave Mazey said at the time ski fields were complex businesses that were always risky or volatile investments, and the South Island Office had decided there were better opportunities elsewhere.
In any case, local iwi and hapū who are required to be meaningfully consulted by DOC, had come out strongly against the sales process and the prospect of the fields being privatised. They said the deal prejudged the outcome of the overdue Tongariro National Park Treaty Settlement.
So, is there any hope for Whakapapa?
“Plenty,” says RSSA spokesperson Sam Clarkson, “it can return to generating millions of dollars annually if the skiers’ proposal is given a fair hearing.”
Clarkson, who runs the and Skotel Hotel at Whakapapa, wants to see the Government shun corporates and start dealing with ski industry experts and skiers themselves. He points out public ownership successfully supported skiing at Ruapehu for 60 years, with skiers as shareholders and life pass holders picking up the tab when required.

Clarkson believes things only went wrong after Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) borrowed $25 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to build the Sky Waka Gondala in 2019.
“That was a pivoting point from a traditional, conservative low-debt model to a high risk high-debt model. The parameters on which they assessed the gondola proposal were flawed. But though it was always marginal, the loan was given by the provincial growth fund, which is of course Government money.
“Unfortunately, after they built it, the dice rolled the wrong way. Covid rode into town, resulting in two years of lockdowns followed by a La Nina weather pattern, meaning poor snow that year. Those factors would have sent any operator close to the wall, but for RAL it tipped them over into insolvency and the debt is now over 30 million.
“Then, when administrators appointed, and they looked for corporate solutions under the Companies Act.
Firstly, the plan was to find another buyer; failing that, to sell the ski fields off in parts and failing that, to essentially have a garage sale. But that was never going to work because of the unique circumstances of the Ruapehu situation - a public asset located in a national park with iwi claims against it. The Company’s Act was never written with such as scenario in mind – it just doesn’t fit.
“The idea of having a garage sale was fiscally impossible. The National Parks Act demands that if an asset is no longer used for its original purpose, it must be completely demolished and the ground it stood on restored back to its natural state.
“Removing ski infrastructure from Mt Ruapehu has been put at up to $100 million. So, selling off the ski field’s assets would be vastly more expensive that saving it.
“Yet the bureaucrats and their consultants have persisted in trying to jam a solution through using the Companies Act. It hasn’t worked, isn’t working and won’t ever work.
“Any new owner is going to have to apply for a concession to work in the Tongariro National Park and this has triggered the complications we are witness right now. The complexities are such that it is actually better to resurrect the existing RAL entity, which holds all the required concessions to run the ski fields.
“If you ignore the circumstances of the last couple of bad years, go back to first principles and look at the RAL constitution and its trust deed, you will see that they are capable of running sustainably if managed by the right people. And they already have the concessions required.”
What was required was to forgive the debt and with that done RAL would no longer be insolvent
“Then we say restructure the RAL’s governance and get people on it who know how to run ski fields. Get back to basics and RAL will be sustainable in the long term, just like it was for the past 60 years.
“Above all its essential to get the right people in to run the ski fields. The right people are not PWC, MBIE or any corporate. They must be run by industry professionals.
“Those people are available to move in and take over – but they are only there for the community ownership model.
Whakapapa Holdings’ Dave Mazey said the gondola debt was a problem for his company, but that wouldn’t bother a not for profit.
“The Tongariro National Park is also subject to a Treaty Settlement. Fundamentally a push-and-pull playing out between iwi and hapu groups to work out who has mana whenua status over which parts of the National Park. It's a process that should and needs to happen. Iwi need to have a safe working relationship so that they can get on with negotiating the Treaty Settlement, secure in the knowledge that the ski fields will be appropriately managed and won’t turn to custard in the meantime.
“Somebody has to maintain the ski fields and we have the industry professionals who could do the job lined up and ready to go. They have the operational, marketing, accounting and engineering knowledge required.
“The only problem us that MBIE need to be talking to them. Given that WHL has left the building it's a little bit odd that they won’t pivot and talk to this group. They appear to only trust corporate models – when you’re a hammer all you see is nails.”
But Clarkson advised not to under-estimate the power of the community owned model.
“What they don’t take into account is that the dividend that the skiers get of owning a ski field is sore legs and smiles. But that’s proven to be one hell of a motivator.
“It’s the sore legs and smiles of our grandchildren that motivates us more powerfully that the profit motive of the corporates. If they can’t make an easy profit, they just move on to something else. But us skiers can’t move on.
“Now we're in the situation at Whakapapa that the corporates have run a mile. So all the Government has to do is drop their corporate agenda and talk to industry experts.
“We invited the new Government to understand the Companies Act has not worked in this situation and take a broader look from another perspective.”