Whakapapa Terrain Park opens

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 599, 15 August 1995, Page 13 (Supplement)

Whakapapa Terrain Park opens

Whakapapa held the official opening of the Carlton Cold Terrain Park and Half Pipe located between the Waterfall Express chairlift and the Waterfall T-bar on 30 July. The park still requires a few more finishing touches, but the big grins and sunburnt faces of the snowboarders who christened the park bore mute testimony to a "wicked day's fun". As well as a 60-metre half pipe, the park features a large tabletop jump, which launched snowboarders far into the air. This provided some great entertainment for people on the Waterfall Quad. Apart from the odd wipeout (greeted with cheers), there were several snowboarders who were consistently generating calls of encouragement and congratulations from the chairlift. Whakapapa intend to build another park by the Far West cafe, but have been unable to start on this due to the regular snowfalls of the past few weeks. An impromptu competition was held towards the end of the day, with competitors getting two runs through the 1/ 2 pipe and one hit off the tabletop to show their talents. "People caught some butty air, with one guy who had only been boarding for 10 days getting the biggest air," said snowboard school head Louisa Muir. The terrain park developments are all part of Whakapapa' s committment to attract more snowboarders to the resort, said Louisa.