Skiers drifted away when Ruapehu, Treble Cone filled up under level 2 caps

Skiers heading to the snowy fields of New Zealand have been left outside in the cold after Level 2 measurements saw hundreds of people move away from the mountains.

At 9 am this morning, visitors to the Mt Hutt snowfield reported that bumper-to-bumper queues stretched 5 km up the mountain and, on the North Island, visitors to Ruapehu have experienced similar chaos with buses. full of skiers who were turned away over the weekend.

Skiers from the South Island reported a run into the mountains after snow deposits of around half a meter at Mt Hutt, Coronet Peak and Craigieburn yesterday. The rush on the mountain and Level 2 restrictions led to a backlog of would-be skiers heading to the slopes.

Operating on level 2 ski fields has been forced to limit the number of visitors. Coronet Peak has restricted mountain skiers to 2,000 visitors, or about half the normal daily number. Also, Mt Hutt has a similar limit of 2000.

However, it is Whakapapa, which has seen the steepest limit of visitors: from 5500 people to 1800 due to the level 2 restrictions.

Problems with the ferry’s passenger assignment drove hundreds of visitors away from the mountain on Sunday.

Even before Auckland joined the rest of the country at Tier 2, there were reports that Whakapapa and Turoa were filling up fast.

“I had booked the bus to Whakapapa only to be stopped and sent back. It was the 8.15 bus,” said skier Katherine Irwin, who was “devastated” by the experience.

Irwin said he received a refund for the trip, but missed a morning of skiing.

Other frustrated skiers described the situation as “insane”, saying they couldn’t understand why 500 people were allowed onto buses on Sunday and then 300 the next.

Scenic Ruapehu Shuttles said they reached capacity just after 8 am Sunday, writing on Facebook “until we get out of level 2, buy a lottery ticket, transports are now a gamble.”

Damian Coutts, director of operations for the Central North Island Department of Conservation, said they “understand the frustration of the people, but the problem is because the demand is exceeding capacity on the ski slopes.”

“DoC and RAL agreed to a maximum at alert level 2 of 300 passengers that can be delivered to the ski slope on a ferry every day,” Coutts said, but individual ferry operators had to decide how to share this quota of passengers.

This capacity had been increased on Saturday to prevent buses from being turned away, after ferry operators had oversold seats, but the 300 limit was imposed on Sunday, causing visitors to be sent back downhill.

Coutts said he was “interested in seeing a better distribution of passengers between companies and seeing that people can access and enjoy their day on the mountain.”

Coutts admitted that the “pressure points” are likely to be with ski operators and visitors trying to access the mountain until the country exits level 2.

A spokesman for Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, which runs the Whakapapa and Turoa ski slopes, said the ferry chaos “was not a RAL problem.”

“RAL is managing the level 2 visitor number restriction with its bookable car parking which is available on its website mtruapehu.com,” they said, adding that a decision was made not to operate a RAL transportation service this year. .

Today in Canterbury, the skiers finally hit the slopes.

A representative from Mount Hutt said that while it has been “a busy day,” they were able to accommodate all the mountain skiers who persevered.

“We are not turning anyone away today.”

Fresh snowfall and the rush of visitors to the mountain caused lines as motorists were told to put on snow chains.

“This meant it took a little longer for everyone to get up and caused a little backlash from vehicles.”

Mt Hutt has reduced parking below Level 2, with spaces limited to just under 600 cars.