Skifields jockeying to stitch up slopes

There's no business like snow business for apres-ski season speculation, and as Otago Daily Times Wanaka bureau chief Mark Price reports, this year has begun with a blizzard of ideas about what's going on in the Cardrona Valley.

The Soho Basin above the Cardrona Valley is renowned by skiers who have been there for the quality of its snow and terrain.

However, without a chairlift and a proper access road from the Cardrona Valley, it has so far remained relatively undisturbed.

The Cardrona Alpine Resort next door is a complete contrast.

It is one of the two most profitable skifields in the country, and last winter it was so busy, on at least one day skiers were turned away.

Queenstown developer John Darby holds the rights to develop the Soho Basin for skiing and he has recently obtained resource consent for a high-speed chairlift that would carry skiers 1.2km from the bottom of the basin to the top, at a point also near the top of the neighbouring Cardrona resort.

The speculation is over what will happen next, and why anything is happening at all.

The Otago Daily Times has attempted to speak directly with Mr Darby, but without success.

However, industry insiders have been joining up the dots and, broadly, this is how they see it:The owner of the Cardrona ski resort is Real Journeys - a private, New Zealand-owned tourism company with many profitable strings to its bow.

It is new to the snow business, but is recognised as a highly competent player that knows how to compete for business.

In the case of Cardrona, the new competition is from the Remarkables Ski Area owned by John Davies through his Trojan Holdings and NZSki companies.

Mr Davies, is spending $45 million at the Remarkables making it more attractive to intermediate skiers, family groups and those on package tours - the bread and butter of Cardrona's business.

And, with the sealing of its access road, the Remarkables will have even greater appeal to overseas tourists who balk at gravel roads.

Real Journeys will be aware of the need to retain its position and that is where insiders suggest Mr Darby has quite an asset in the Soho Basin skifield rights, complete with consent for a chairlift.

In the consent documents, the basin looks perfectly placed to be an extension of Cardrona and its full range of skifield infrastructure - access road, electricity, machinery, base buildings, management etc.

Not surprisingly, the Soho Basin has been part of Cardrona's long-term expansion plan all the way back to the 1980s.

But it is Mr Darby who owns the rights to the basin, and he now has another important card up his sleeve.

About a year ago, he spent several million dollars buying 2000ha of land off Cardrona Valley farmer Tim Scurr.

That provides him with some fairly expensive grazing land but far more importantly, it provides him with the all-important direct access between the snow of the Soho Basin and the skiers using the Cardrona Valley road.

If things do not work out with Real Journeys, insiders say, Mr Darby could go it alone.

One described that as Mr Darby's ''leverage'' in negotiations with Real Journeys over developing the Soho Basin.

The ODT has been told installing the high-speed, six-person chairlift in the basin would leave little change from $10 million.

The cost of creating a new, stand-alone skifield from scratch would be considerably more than that.

But, with Chinese tourists' growing enthusiasm for skiing, there is the prospect of a huge new market for the industry here.

And that could help make a new skifield, close to Queenstown Airport with reliable snow and a good range of terrain an attractive investment.

As for international skiers being unenthusiastic about gravel access roads, the solution being talked about in the Cardrona Valley is for a gondola from the valley floor to the Soho Basin.

Even if the basin was to become an extension of Cardrona, rather than a stand-alone field, a gondola would ease pressure on Cardrona's access road and car parking space.

Industry insiders note the old hand - NZSki - has played its Remarkables card; rookie Real Journeys is considering its first big play of the game and Mr Darby holds the ace of Soho.

Real Journeys chief executive Richard Lauder has been visiting Chinese skifields this month and has yet to respond to ODT requests for an interview.

No-one spoken to considered more skifield development a bad thing for the region, overall.

However, it has been noted that while all the political rhetoric is about harmony between tourist town rivals Wanaka and Queenstown, the ski industry battle lines clearly pit one side of the Crown Range against the other.

mark.price@odt.co.nz

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