Ohakune breathes sigh of relief as Ruapehu ski season saved days from school break

Ohakune business people are breathing a sigh of relief that this year's Mt Ruapehu ski season has been saved, ahead of the busy school holiday fortnight.

A $5 million guarantee from the government allows the Tūroa and Whakapapa skifields to open from Saturday, despite Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL) being in liquidation.

For now, life pass holders can still ski. All that was needed was snow, but the forecast suggests this will arrive too.

For businesses in the mountain's shadow, uncertainty has given way to relief.

Rocky Mountain Chalets owner Will Papple said he was delighted to hear of the government guarantee.

"The $5 million is 100 percent something that everybody needs and wanted, but how it applies in the real world - that's what we need to know."

On Tuesday, some information was revealed by Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, which confirmed the ski season would start on Saturday.

Papple said the upcoming school holidays, starting on Monday, were normally a busy period.

"We're ticking along all good, but we're down on where we should be. Next week is school holidays. We're normally booked back to back.

"We're looking at about 30 percent booked at the moment. Hopefully once they get the [ski] tickets up for sale that will change the dynamic and people will start to book."

Papple said he could not understate the importance of a good ski season.

"It's our cream. We're got milk right through the rest of the year."

Vertigo Climbing owner Jeremy Hamer agreed.

"Anything that gets the skifields back up and running is going to be great for town because it needs the skifields," Hamer said.

"Without that a lot of us are going to have to close our doors and to see Ohakune die even more than it has in the last couple of years would be a real shame."

TCB Ski Board and Bike director Ben Wiggins said the $5 million guarantee might indicate the process to sell the skifields could take a while, which was a shame for bidders ready to go.

But knowing the ski season would happen could only be positive.

"It's fantastic that the government has actually stepped in and said, look, we want to signal to the entire country that no matter what happens the season's going to open and go ahead."

That government guarantee was worth it, he said.

"The mountain brings in over $100 million worth of revenue to the region. It provides thousands of jobs on the mountain, off the mountain or regionally - everything from restaurants to shops, everything in between...

"There are so many people that rely on it."

Black Bull Liquor co-owner Abhi Gupta was one of those people.

"There's not much population around here so for businesses, their major profit depends on the ski season so they can survive for the whole year.

"There are some months which are really really quiet for this town and it's hard for the businesses to keep surviving to pay for the staff and manage their expenses."

Ruapehu Mountain Motel and Lodge co-owner Leigh Berry welcomed this week's news with relief, after last week's shock RAL watershed meeting failed to agree on new ownership proposals.

"We've been pretty uncertain for the last week, not sure what's going to happen and if we have any financial security.

"The whole town was looking at not surviving if we didn't get that mountain going.

"It's really good news. I may not agree with everything the government's done, but thank you for doing this."

There was already an uptick in interest in bookings.

La Pizzeria owner Conrad Stephens, a ski life pass holder, said it was not all doom and gloom in the town, and business had been going well through summer.

"We've always been pretty positive because with a mountain like this, no way are they going to let it close or not open for the season."

Stephens said it would cost the government $50m to $100m to remove the skifields' infrastructure from Mt Ruapehu if the operations failed, which would not be a good use of taxpayer money.