CBD hostel buy-up to house up to 80 skifield workers from this winter
‘‘It’s time to act.’’
Those were the words of NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson yesterday, confirming to Mountain Scene the skifield operator’s just gone unconditional on the purchase of a CBD hostel, for an undisclosed sum, to be used for staff accommodation.
Sir Cedrics Tahuna Pod Hostel, on Henry Street, currently has capacity for up to 72 people, but Anderson says once they take possession — on May 1 — they plan to renovate to create room for another eight people.
Additionally, NZSki’s got consent for a staff apartment development in Fryer St — where the company already owns five houses, with capacity for up to 20 staff — which will house up to 40 more.
Anderson says they’re finalising the plans for that development at the moment, but hope to have stage one completed by the start of next winter.
‘‘People say it’s always been tough to come to Queenstown and find accommodation, but without doubt over the last two to five years it’s got harder and harder and harder,’’ he says.
‘‘It’s time to act and I’m thrilled to be able to provide it.’’
The move to purchase the hostel, which will be managed, comes after NZSki last year leased the former YHA building, on Shotover St, which housed about 60 staff for the season.
That’s subsequently been leased by the company that owns Novotel and Fernhill’s Kamana Lakehouse, also being used for staff accommodation.
But Anderson says the company saw the difference in having that accommodation available in the CBD, a stone’s throw from its own bus transport.
‘‘We just really want to be doing our bit to help that market.
‘‘We can’t provide it for all staff, but it’s a big chunk.’’
Considering summer use for winter digs
This year, Anderson says about 1000 people will be employed by NZSki across its Queenstown operations, though he notes not all of those people are looking for housing.
He estimates about 500 of those people are already living in Queenstown, and about 250 others are returnees, who have digs lined up.
Last week, Scene reported Arrowtown-based regional economist Benje Patterson had researched the case of the disappearing rentals, and found in the 12 months to last November, 100 rentals had dropped out of the Queenstown-Lakes market — and another 30 were missing last December.
‘‘You talk to any employer in town at the moment, everyone’s saying how tough it is to find accommodation for staff, so we just wanted to step up and make sure we can provide it,’’ Anderson says.
He notes, though, they’ll still be looking for locals willing to earn a bit of money over winter and accommodate an NZSki worker or two, if they can, something the company’s been doing for several seasons now.
‘‘It’s actually really good for a lot of our staff to go and be with a family … usually we’ve got between 60 and 100 families who [have rooms], so we still want to support that.’’
Asked what NZSki’s new hostel will be used for during the summer months, Anderson says they’ve got ‘‘a wee bit of thinking to do’’.
‘‘It may still operate as a hostel in the summer months … but there may be other employers who want to take a summer lease on it.
‘‘We’ll work through those options in the coming months.’’
Not following Cardies and TC
Meantime, NZSki has no plans to follow the lead of RealNZ and reduce capacity on its skifields.
This week, Cardrona and Treble Cone Experiences GM Laura Hedley announced they’re aiming to reduce the number of skiers and boarders on the mountain by about 1000 on the busiest days, compared to peak days between 2020 and 2022.
While they’ll sell the same number of season and earlybird multi-day passes, in-season single day and muliti-day passes will be limited.
Once daily capacity’s reached, there’ll be no more day passes available.
Anderson says that’s likely to see increased demand for Coronet Peak and The Remarkables on the busiest days of the year, but ‘‘we’ve got no intentions to follow suit’’.
‘‘We do end up having to control access on our mountains from time-to-time — when it’s a bluebird powder day, everyone wants to ski.
‘‘People love being able to go, ‘it’s a great day, I’m going up the mountain’.
‘‘We don’t want to take that flexibility away from locals, particularly.’’
He says NZSki’s spent ‘‘tens of millions’’ over the past decade on lift infrastructure, which has worked well to keep queues on the mountains down, as long as people can get up.
‘‘Most locals, particularly, know that if it’s a weekend day in the school holidays, you need to get up there early.’’
Skifield bus tweaks
To help move people up the hill more efficiently, NZSki’s making some changes to its bus transport, which Anderson hopes will see an end to the lines of people snaking from Duke Street, down Camp St and around the Shotover St corner, waiting, sometimes for hours, to get on a bus to head up the hills.
This year, the skifield operator’s introducing a booking system for buses, similar to booking a flight.
‘‘They [mountain users] know what time their bus leaves [and] they know where it’s going to pick them up.’’
That should also mean people waiting for a bus somewhere other than The Station Building are guaranteed a seat.
Further, The Remarkables’ bus route’s going to tie in with the Orbus network — which, hopefully, by then will be operating to its full schedule.
Anderson says till now, those skifield buses have had to go from The Remarks back to the Queenstown CBD, often taking an hour just to get down Frankton Road, reducing NZSki’s capacity to get people up the hill.
This year, The Remarks buses will leave The Station Building in the morning, then just loop around Frankton.
‘‘So, they’ll either loop The Remarkables Road, and pick up people from the bottom, or loop back to the Frankton bus exchange, and pick people up from there.
‘‘We’re just always trying to think about making things more efficient, making things better.’’
