Official opening of lift

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 10, 4 August 1987, Page 1

Official opening of lift

Skiing Whakapapa can be a moving experience especially if one chooses to ride the country's first detachable quad chairlift. The new lift was officially opened on Saturday by Ruapehu Alpine Lifts Director Peter Scott. More than 100 people witnessed the opening at the lift in damp, whiteout conditions. Ruapehu Ski Club, representing the Whakapapa clubs, hosted invited guests for lunch after the. opening and ride on the chair. Construction began on the Waterfall 'Express' chairlift early this year and after six months of solid work and many long hours, the lift is up and running. Doppelmayr (New Zealand) Ltd built the new lift with the help of staff brought out from the parent company in Austria. The Waterfall Express is the first quadruple chairlift in the world to be constructed with the exclusive use of helicopters to transport parts and equipment to the site and to use helicopters rather than cranes to install equipment. The absence of an access road made helicopters necessary and a heavy-lift helicopter costing $4,500 an hour was used in some instances. The cost of construction was about $3 million. The quad is unique in that chairs may be detached from the main cable at both drive and return stations. They are housed overnight in an enormous enclosed terminal which eliminates the problem of chairs icing up.

The quad lift has taken the place of what was once the Waterfall double chairlift, since relocated to run parallel to the Rockgarden Chair, and renamed the Centennial Chair, in recognition of Tongariro National Park's celebrations this year. The quad chairlift has the capacity to move a massive 2800 passengers per hour, but is not yet up to its full capacity. The number of chairs will be increased to 90 over the next few years but for now staff are concentrating on educating the

public on the State of the Art amenity. Aptly named the 'Express', the chairlift moves approximately two and a half times the speed of a conventional life, cutting the time to travel the one kilometre stretch from nine minutes to a mere three minutes. Passengers board a chair while it is moving at 0.7 metres a second, slower than a walking pace. A series of specially geared "wheelbarrow" wheels, 45 in all, increase the velocity cont'd on p. 15

Official opening of lift cont'dfromp. 1 and chairs are 'fired' out at five metres a second (nearly 20 km/hr). By the same process reversed the chairs are slowed at the retum station to 0.7 metres a second for disembarking. The lift has a comprehensive built-in safety system, complete with proximity switches which ensure correct spacing between chairs, thus preventing collisions. Safety systems installed on the towers stop the lift instantly in the case of a derailment. Ruapehu Alpine Lifts' Operations Manager Scott Lee was one of the first to ride on the newly installed lift and compared it to the thrill derived from riding a roller coaster. "We've had people throwing up their arms and hooting with delight - it's such a thrill to ride," he said. "Our chair is the technology of the future and its only the beginning" said Mr Lee.