On June 15, 2007, the world’s newest and record-setting chairlift was dedicated. If it didn’t make your local headlines, location might be why.
It’s in the middle of the North Island of New Zealand.
Here are the records:
• Largest lift-accessed terrain in New Zealand
• Highest lift in New Zealand
• Longest vertical drop in Australasia.
The new lift, the High Noon Express, is a detachable sixpack. It’s on the Turoa ski field and climbs the rocky slopes of Mt. Ruapehu to 2,232 meters.
The reason the slopes are so rocky is that Mt. Ruapehu is a (barely) dormant volcano that has a habit of depositing volcanic rock spewn from its summit. Its last spew was 1996.
The volcanic rocks are now covered only with snow, thanks to a massive, last-minute cleanup of the detritus of lift-building.
Mike Smith, Turoa’s marketing director, says, “Our biggest problem has always been too many skiers for us to accommodate. The new lift, along with improvements to the access road and expansion of the parking lots, really resolves that problem. It’s also a much faster way up the mountain than the T-bar it’s replaced.
Chubb George, director of Snow Centre, a well-equipped ski-and-snowboard shop at the foot of the mountain, shares Smith’s excitement. “The High Noon Express moves more people up the hill and opens more skiable terrain. It will make Turoa a way more popular ski area.
Mt. Ruapehu towers above New Zealand’s Tongariro National Park. The mountain is a vision in white above the ultra-green New Zealand landscape. It’s the Antipodean Jungfrau.
In 1887, the sacred mountain and its two nearby sisters, were gifted to the people of New Zealand by the paramount chief of the Ngati Tuwharetoa tribe, ensuring their protection.
Turoa is on Ruapehu’s southwestern aspect. Its sister ski area, Whakapapa, is on the northwestern aspect.
Although Turoa and Whakapapa are owned by the same non-profit company, Ruapehu Alpine lifts Ltd., Whakapapa really has nothing to do with this story. But Whakapapa is so much fun to say, it’s in here anyway.
How do you say it? In Maori, the wh is pronounced as a soft f. In New Zealand, the first a is a short u. So, Fukapapa.
Fukapapa, Fukapapa, Fukapapa.
See?
