New Developments At Cardrona For 2004

New Developments At Cardrona For 2004

A new high-speed detachable quad chair, an extended terrain park and increased facilities at the Children’s Alpine Centre are the key new developments at New Zealand’s most popular mountain, Cardrona Alpine Resort, this year.

The Whitestar Express, named after a well-known gold dredge that operated in the Cardrona valley at the turn of the century, will replace the existing La Franchi double chair at a cost of $4.5 million. The new lift will halve the journey time from the bottom of the mountain to the top to less than four minutes at a rate of five metres per second. It will increase capacity by an additional 1,200 skiers per hour, creating an overall mountain lift capacity in excess of 7,800 people per hour.

Operations manager, Shaun Gilbertons, said the investment is a direct response to consumer demand.

“We know our customers want faster lifts and more capacity,” he said. “This new chair will answer both issues and be a very welcome addition for the 2004 winter. The area it services is a mix of intermediate and advanced terrain and is considered by many customers as some of the best in the resort.”

Cardrona’s comittment to snowboarding and freeskiing is further demonstrated with the extension of the terrain park. 2004 will see two trails running parallel to each other under the new Whitestar Express lift. The Heavy Metal trail will run the full the full 1.2km on a purpose built terraced course containing larger rails and features in excess of 8m in size. The Playzone trail will run alongside the upper Heavy Metal trail utilizing smaller features, allowing a wider range of skiers and boarders to acces the thrills of freeriding.

A number of improvements have been made to the Children’s Alpine Centre, New Zealand’s most comprehensive on-mountain children’s facility. Parents can now enjoy real time ticketing and reservations as well as on-line registration, saving time on arrival. To make life easier for parents of pre-schoolers, Cardrona has invested in 20 sets of small skis and boots from Salomon which are supplied free of charge for Ski Korral programmes. This means that the days of juggling skis and small children in the main rental department are over.

Cardrona’s popular Skiwees has got even better for 5-12 year olds in 2004. Not only is it the only children’s programme in New Zealand to run every week of season but it’s also the only one that offers all day supervision. Starting each Monday and running for four days, Skiwees and Lowriders (for young snowboarders) features lessons, lunch and play with the instructors from 10am to 4pm. This allows the children up to five hours on the snow and they get to ski with their friends all day.

“No other mountain in the country offers the same level of service to children and their parents,” said Jeremy Collis, Cardrona’s Development Centre Director. “The New Zealand approach to teaching skiing to kids hasn’t really changed since the 1970’s. We’ve listened to the kids and have introduced a programme that can be tailored to their energy levels. The little ones will tire more quickly than the 10 year olds and that’s fine. They can go back to the Kids’ Club with their instructor and play games, have something to eat and then get back out on the snow when they’ve recharged their batteries.”

Cardrona Alpine Resort’s 2004 will run from 24 June to 10 October.

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