Enthusiasm for building gondolas on the Wanaka side of the Crown Range appears to have died away.
Resource consents for two gondolas, both granted in 2008, remain current.
However, industry sources suggested yesterday neither was likely to go ahead soon.
Cardrona skifield entrepreneur John Lee said his family still held the consent for a gondola that would have carried skiers from the Cardrona Valley to the family's Snow Park and Snow Farm businesses on the Pisa Range.
''I don't think it's going to happen,'' he said.
Now retired, Mr Lee said he had prioritised building the Snow Park - now closed to the public - and accommodation on the mountain and ''ran out of money'' to put in a gondola.
The planned 3.8km gondola was expected to cost $16.6 million in 2008 and would have served a much expanded skifield development above the Roaring Meg River.
A resource consent is also still in place for a gondola from the Matukituki Valley to the Treble Cone Skifield.
Majority shareholder John Darby, of Queenstown, did not return calls yesterday.
However, an industry source said there were no signs the gondola would be built before its 10-year consent ran out.
The problem, the ODT was told, was that gondolas were not particularly good investments in themselves.
Where they had been successful in recent times internationally was in conjunction with sales of real estate.
''If you have a look at gondolas that have gone in anywhere in the world, they have a wider business model associated with them.
''The majority of them have a village at the base. They [gondolas] are real-estate plays.''
The source likened skifield gondola developments to golf course developments surrounded by luxury holiday accommodation.
