Making the most of the times

Ruapehu Bulletin, 27 June 1989, Page 9

Making the most of the times

Nobody in Ohakune is denying the town could do with a good ski season this year.

The service town at the base of the Turoa skifield has been hard hit by two poor seasons. For Sale signs litter streets following the share market crash that sapped growing real estate investment from the area. The Meteorological Service has predicted another La Nina-type winter for the North Island. This should bring warm wet northwesterlies across the country but it is the weather patterns in the immediate area that decide whether the snow comes and how long it stays. Good fall or bad, the town will be here next year. Sue Allomes heads the Ruapehu South Business Association and admits everyone wants a good season. Money flows during the winter but the town is not as dependent upon the skier's dollar as it used to be. "We were 100 percent full the last couple of winters, despite the bad season," said Mrs Allomes. Five years ago firms would have gone broke if they had had three poor seasons in a row. A burgeoning adventure leisure industry has given the town a buffer against the vagaries of the snow. But the few companies that still trade exclusively for the ski buff may not be so lucky, she said. "Skiing is a fairly narrow way to spend a weekend. But walking in the bush, or visiting the mountain are far more interesting for a lot of families." Apart from people in the skifields, staff in the lodges and adven-

ture tours tend to have work the year through. "If you can spread your costs over nine months, that's much better than spreading them over foui months." Rafting, horse trekking and mountain bike riding are increasingly popular with foreign and local tourists. Sitting between two National Parks and a forest park, the Waimarino is ideally placed to capitalise on the growing adventure holiday business, she says. One man who is hanging out for a good season is nightclub operator and sometime wood-turner, Paul Beckett. Mr Beckett renovated the Junction's empty picture theatre three years ago and created the Hot Lava nightclub. He still has woodturning to support him - "turning native timber vases for foreign affairs and people like that" - but with a heavy overdraught the nightclub needs the numbers that only come to town during the ski season. "Why I'm doing it, Lord knows. I could make more money selling vases to Michael Fay." The club is open during the rest of the year but Paul concedes the local trade really only pays the bills. "You've got Christmas, New Year, Easter and Queens Birthday Weekend, so you get a good night every three or four weeks. I suppose you'd say they're the little oases in the desert of summer." Paul's V8 Holden sits outsidK the club while

he touches up the club's interior. He's taking a gamble this year, booking bands for July when he dosen't know if the skiers will be in town. "You can't rely on October any more, people are already thinking about the beach by then. You've got to get in early to get enough cash in two months to survive 10 months." Midge Marsden, the Holidaymakers and Graham Brazier are among those appearing later in the season. Paul has been trying to pull over a "couple of good Aussie bands" in exchange for a week of skiing, rafting, fishing and bungy jumping. Another born optimist, Paul's sure he'll get them. The Tourist Hotel Corporation's decision not to have live bands at the Chateau's T-Bar at Whakapapa is another point in his favour. Like everyone in town, though he wants the snow because of the "mountain madness",^ that goes with it. Ohakune becomes a pretty town, where visitors don't mind spending money to have a good time, money that hasn't been spent in the town for several years. "Before the crash we had boxes (chalets) going up all over the place. "A good season has as much to do with money in pockets as snow on the ground." One man who can make snow for Turoa is Andy Chapman, head of Turoa's marketing and

operations. Notoriously optimistic about any season, he sees the dumping of snow on Turoa at Queens Birthday Weekend as a sign of good things to come. The last two seasons have been lean. The company had spent $4.5 milliorf up-grad-ing the road, putting in new lifts and extending the cafeterias on the field. He says the hatches have been battened down ever since, and only miriimal capital work was done this summer. What has been done though, has been aimed at the best management of whatever snow they get. "We're a little bit further ahead, due to a lot of work we did over the summer. We can plan at getting some of the trails open early with a lot less snow." Not a bitter man, he is still rankled by publicity that ignored the snow Turoa kept on its upper fields last season. -

He knows the value of good public relations now but he also knows he has to get skiers past the car park if the field is to make money during a warm winter. Extensive rock grooming means the learner skiers that missed out last year can go up to three sites on the higher slopes if the white stuff is in short supply this season. The snow fences are out creating drifts that can then be spread on the trails by the snowcats. "We had a reasonable snow cover last year under the (same) wind conditions." "The early snow fall and the falls we're getting on the upper parts of the mountain at the moment mean we should be putting down a good base in some of the gullies. "The cold southerlies are hitting us and we're expecting good falls this week."