:00AM Friday June 29, 2007By Simon O'Rourke
The Prime Minister inaugurated the biggest ski chairlift in Australasia yesterday - but Mt Ruapehu's fickle weather prevented her from riding it.
The six-seater High Noon Express at Turoa was inoperable because its 26-tonne cable jumped off the framework last week.
The cable became so weighed down from a massive build-up of ice that the machinery that drives it automatically shut down. The thick ice was a result of a southerly blast that included the year's most savage cold snap.
It was impossible for maintenance workers to get the $13 million lift up and running in time for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, but it is expected to be open this weekend for sightseeing trips.
A further snow dump of 20cm will see skiers and boarders begin to utilise the slopes beneath it.
Prime Minister Helen Clark described the lift as "super-dupa", and said it was part of a huge step-up in facilities for the ski field.
"It will bring a lot of smiles to skiers' faces."
Ruapehu Alpine Lifts was a "special kind of company" in that every cent of profit it made was invested back in ski infrastructure on the mountain. The company plans to construct two more high-speed chairlifts in the next five years.
Whakapapa and Turoa cater to a combined 11,500 customers a day at their peak, but Ruapehu Alpine Lifts marketing manager Mike Smith said infrastructure improvements were not about increasing visitor numbers.
"We can't go much past that because we're restricted by carparks."
The issue was more about ramping up the snow experience, with shorter queues and better facilities.
"Giving people more bang for their bucks."
Norbert Feuerstein, a spokesman for the company that manufactured the lift, Doppelmayr, said the firm had built 30,000 lifts around the globe and this was the first time that a lift had been opened but was not operational.
But Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) director Graham Painter said the cable had done exactly what it had been designed to do, "flicking" off the pulley system when nature determined that it was too dangerous to ride.
Turoa's high noon express
* Can carry 3200 people an hour, dropping off 50 skiers and boarders at the top of the mountain every minute.
* Runs for 1.36km with a vertical rise of 398m.
* Cost $13 million to build.
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