with Chris Hipkins in China<\/a>\u00a0– said the government was stepping in now because nobody else would.<\/p>\n“It has been not the situation that we would want to be in but we certainly want to still provide access to New Zealanders,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We have to step in here because no one else will for the interim, but we are looking to find a longer-term solution.”<\/p>\n
It was to keep the place operating until a longer-term solution was found, and the money would not be going directly to life pass holders, Sepuloni said.<\/p>\n
She suggested that with climate change likely affecting the mountain’s viability as a ski field into the future, operators in the area would be considering changing tack.<\/p>\n
“Obviously the first priority has to be mitigating the risk of climate change and doing everything we can but in the event that a situation, where they’re changed, then how do we then use or access the taonga that are still there?<\/p>\n
“Those lifts if you’ve been up not in the middle of winter but if you’ve been up when there’s no snow, it’s still a beautiful place to go and visit. So I think everyone that’s in that siutation is probably rethinking where they pivot to and how they work with regards to the tourism sector.”<\/p>\n
Allan said Ruapehu was a very significant part of the economy in the central North Island, accounting for about $100m a year in GDP, about a 10th of the region’s productivity.<\/p>\n
“The final decision in relation to the sale is made by the liquidator,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The government is now considering the three bids for government support and I have asked MBIE to engage with the bidders to determine the best outcome for RAL’s creditors, the Crown, the local economy and community.”<\/p>\n
Speaking from China, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said: “Ruapehu’s a big part of the central North island economy, particularly over winter, we have to recognise it’s been a pretty tough couple of seasons for them.<\/p>\n
“Over time we want to be able to work with … potentially with a new operator, whoever that might be, to identify a future for Ruapehu that allows the ski fields to operate where there is snow, but also has a tourism offering that isn’t just dependent on snow.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
VIA RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The government has promised up to $5 million to the liquidators of Ruapehu Alpine Lifts to ensure the 2023 ski season can go ahead. The company was\u00a0officially put into liquidation last week, after a vote on who would take over the ski-fields ended in a stalemate. Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan said the funding would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5908,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906\/revisions\/5908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}