Waiorau Station owner John Lee said the family was "primarily" looking for an investment partner to help push through a $17 million gondola to the different alpine operations on the 1500m-high Pisa Range.
The Lees do not have the resources to build their planned gondola.
Resource consent for the 3.88km-long gondola, which will rise 985m from the Cardrona Valley to the Pisa Range, was granted in May.
If built, it will be the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere and capable of carrying thousands of people to the existing Snow Farm and Snow Park NZ resorts.
"The gondola is bigger than us. We need a partner, or new owner," he said.
Negotiations with international investors have been ongoing since December last year.
A combination of resource consent delays, plus the recent financial credit crisis was "frustrating to the extreme", but Mr Lee insisted a gondola would go ahead.
Waiorau Station has been owned by the Lee family for more than 80 years.
Mr Lee set up the Cardrona skifield on the opposite side of the valley in 1980, before he sold it to a consortium in 1989 for about $5 million, and shifted his focus to the Pisa Range.
Making the decision to sell the family's Pisa Range operations and look for potential investors was no different from "back then", he said.
"I could have stayed on as a sole owner [of Cardrona] when it was struggling, or become a minority owner in a successful skifield."
Cardrona is now recognised as one of the most successful and financially profitable skifields in the southern hemisphere.
Mr Lee said the Pisa Range had the same potential to achieve his vision of an "alpine Disneyland", but about $30 million investment is needed.
A proposed "Roaring Meg Resort" is earmarked for 300ha of skiable terrain on the southern-facing "beginner to intermediate" slopes on the Pisa Range, which would be serviced by up to five chairlifts.
The Lees also have plans for a 2000-bed alpine hotel at the site.
Snow Park general manager Sam Lee said he was excited about sitting down to talk to potential investors and intended to keep a "hands-on" involvement with future operations.
He insisted the family was "not selling out", and seeking potential investors or buyers was about increasing the long-term value of the operations.
The gondola project was one which would create jobs and opportunities for people and bring in more visitors to the region, he said.
The property is for sale by international tender, with a closing date of 4pm on November 26.
