New Zealand’s Porters Ski Area Plans NZ$250 Million Development
Press Release
- August 26 2009
- 78 views
- 1 comment
Porter's Photo
New Zealand - A NZ$250 million ($171 million) plan for Canterbury’s second-biggest ski-field could see Christchurch rivalling Queenstown for the international ski-tourist dollar.
A consortium of New Zealand and Australian investors that bought the Porters Ski Area 2 1/2 years ago wants to build European-style accommodation for up to 3000 people at the foot of the mountain and expand the 700-hectare ski area into the adjoining Crystal Valley.
The plan, which could take 10 years to complete, would include more terrain for family and intermediate skiers.
The consortium proposes a gondola up to the slopes from a car park and resort at the base of the ski area, snowmaking on the main trails and a ski trail through regenerating native beech forest down to the village for skiers at the end of the day.
Blackfish - comprising the families of Christchurch investor and Porters Ski Area managing director Michael Sleigh and of Sydney businessmen Duncan Bull and Simon Harvey - wants the development to be environmentally acceptable.
Sleigh said skiers could drive on sealed roads from Christchurch to the car park, and from there get on the gondola.
Snowmaking was essential to attract tourists, he said. “If you are an Australian looking at a ski holiday, you want to know you will arrive and that skiing will be open.”
The field, an hour’s drive from Christchurch, employed 40 staff, he said, but the new resort would employ another 35 in permanent jobs and up to 400 in seasonal work.
He wanted the field to be as big as Mt Hutt, the region’s biggest ski area, which sells five times as many lift passes as Porters.
“It would be great for Canterbury to have another big ski area,” Sleigh said.
“New Zealand tourism, particularly winter tourism, has still got really good opportunities to grow in a global sense.”
Ski-fields are having a record season because fewer Kiwis are going overseas for holidays and Australians are favouring New Zealand fields over their own.
Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism chief executive Christine Prince said having two large commercial ski-fields in the region would boost tourism.
“For us to be more competitive, to be offering more direct ski product against Queenstown, would be fantastic,” she said.
“We have a far greater frequency of flights, we’re cheaper and more accessible.”
Destination Queenstown chief executive Stephen Pahl played down suggestions of rivalry with Canterbury.
“We’ve never taken the position that we’re competing with anyone else,” he said. “Queenstown holds a unique position in the ski market and I think we’ll retain that.”
Plans for what Sleigh called a small, carbon-neutral alpine village at Porter Heights hinge on a proposed land swap with the Department of Conservation (DOC).
Porters is on a perpetual lease from the department, but for accommodation to be built, investors will want the land to be freehold.
Blackfish proposes swapping 15ha adjoining the Lords Bush Scenic Reserve near Springfield for 21ha of DOC-owned land on the Porters access road.
Sleigh said the first step in the plan was to gain approval for the land acquisition and to get resource consents from the Selwyn District Council and Environment Canterbury.
“We hope to have that resolved fairly soon - a matter of months.”
The village would operate year-round as a centre for other activities, such as tramping and mountainbiking.
Sleigh told the Canterbury-Aoraki Conservation Board last week that his company would set up an environmental restoration trust and assume financial and operational responsibility for restoring the former farmland near Lords Bush.
Sleigh told The Press he hoped work could start in two or three years.
“I think the proposition is compelling. With our increasing closeness with Australia, it’s potentially not a bad time.”
Redeveloping the ski-field would cost about $40m, while accommodation would be “much more”, at a total of between $200m and $300m, he said.
»
