September 17 last year marked the start of the first full season of the park, after a successful four-month trial offering the only gondola-assisted mountain biking in the southern hemisphere.
Skyline mountain biking co-ordinator Brad Rowe said that a total of 45,256 rides were completed before the gondola closed to mountain bikes from December 24 for the peak festive season.
Part of the Ben Lomond recreational reserve, the Queenstown Bike Park is built on steep pine-covered hill, with a climb of 500m from the bottom to the top of the gondola.
The "really good interest" shown so far in the season looks set to continue, and the 100,000 runs down the mountain prediction last year appears to be well within reach.
"I think it could well happen based on the first half as we're coming into the real busy season for bikers now. But you never really know until it happens," Mr Rowe said.
He also said there were already 335 season pass holders, which represented an improvement on the previous season, with "more locals getting up there and getting amongst it".
Last year's trial season at Skyline saw 5000 people complete more than 58,000 runs down the mountain over four months.
Queenstown Mountain Bike Club president Tom Hey said the gondola-assisted rides were great for the resort. People had been turned away over the festive period, after turning up ready to ride.
However, because of the closure, people were making plenty of use of the alternative tracks in the area, as well as the Gorge Rd Dirt Park and bike taxi services.
"There's heaps of alternative riding here .. and it's good to see it's bringing a lot of people into town, so it would be nice to see a bit of money from the council and Doc."
Skyline chief executive Jeff Staniland acknowledged closing the gondola to mountain bikes had not been ideal, but said there was no alternative, given how busy the period got.
"We will always continue to monitor it, but our peak is the Christmas-New Year period and often there are lines out the door and we just don't have the capacity at this point," he said.
"We would have to build another gondola."
Contrary to appearances, the closure might even have benefits for Queenstown, Mr Rowe said.
"We just had a call from a lady earlier, who was here when the gondola was closed. She had a great time doing those other tracks and now she wants to come back and do the gondola, so it works both ways."
