Mt Cook Well Placed For Growth Ahead

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32385, 26 August 1970, Page 16

Mt Cook Well Placed For Growth Ahead

Mount Cook and Southern Lakes Tourist Company, Ltd, was now a national company, strategically placed to take advantage of the growth in the tourist industry which is ahead, and one could not be anything but optimistic about the future, the chairman (Mr H. R. Wigley) said in the annual report.

The growth of tourist traffic to the South Pacific is greater than in any other part of the world, he said, and the company is expecting to share in this growth for many years to come.

During the year the company was granted a licence to extend its air services from Mount Cook to Rotorua: it also acquired Luxury Landlines, a well-established firm which operates high quality scheduled coach services between Wellington and Auckland. Interest in the company’s operation by overseas agents is greater than ever before. The Rotorua-Mount Cook service particularly has encouraged them to put more tours into the South Island with the result that forward bookings are higher than ever before.

Tours Promotion The company has recently been awarded a contract by American Airlines to provide the New Zealand content for its “Astro-Jet” tour programme. Mount Cook will provide full tour programmes, transport and accommodation for tour parties during their stay in New Zealand. American Airlines will promote these tours with a full advertising campaign and with in-flight films of New Zealand on domestic flights. Airlines Division The main airlines division operating the Hawker Siddeley 748 and two DC3’s on scheduled services from Christchurch to Mount Cook, Queenstown and Fiordland had an excellent year with revenue up by 34 per cent. The HS74B returned a modest profit The Hawker Siddeley 748

service from Rotorua to Mt Cook and Queenstown will commence in October. This will provide a direct link with the tourist hub of the North Island and facilitate the movement of tourists to the south. The flight time, Rotorua-Mt Cook, will be 2} hours and greater economy of operation should result from these longer flights. The second H. 5.748 will be in service by July, 1971, and two flights a day will be scheduled.

Good weather and a steady ; flow of traffic through Mount Cook, the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers have given the ski planes a record season. The eight Cessna 185 s sixseater aircraft, and the fourseater Cessna 180, have all been steadily employed. The number of passengers carried by ski planes on air tours between Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers increased this year. This was achieved without addition to the fleet of nine aircraft Two Britten Norman Islanders will come into service in September and will augment the scenic tours out of Te Anau, Milford Sound and Queenstown. In spite of the premature end to the ski season caused by an unseasonable five days

of continuous warm rain early in September, revenue at Coronet Peak reached a record level. The installation of a new Poma lift on the ski field at Coronet Peak will greatly extend the ski runs available. Running from 3800 ft to 5400 ft, it gives a vertical gain of 1500 ft and is one of the longest in the world. Major modifications have been made to the existing Poma lift.

New Zealand’s first snowgrooming machine is operating at the Coronet Peak skifield. The $14,000 American-made Thiokol brings to this country snow-grooming techniques as practised with the same equipment at all top snowfields in Europe and North America. By compacting new snow it can give an earlier start to the ski-ing season, as well as extend it

Hotel Problems Referring to the hotel side of the industry, Mr Wigley said: “The accommodation shortage. particularly at Queenstown is a limiting factor for many months of the year, and as we are competing with other operators and dependent to a large extent on other people’s good-will in order to secure it the situation will continue to be unsatisfactory until we get our own hotel built “Planning for the Queenstown hotel is continuing. However, we cannot go to tender nor complete arrangements for finance until all appeals before the Town and Country Appeal Board have been disposed of, nor are we able to get a building permit from the Queenstown Borough Council until its problems with water supply and sewage disposal have been resolved.”

Coachlines, Freight

The coachlines division had a reasonably good year but the seasonality pattern of the traffic prevented the company from getting maximum utilization from coaches and cars.

The closing of the branch railway line to Fairlie, the build-up of the Twizel Hydro village near Pukaki and other factors have combined to give the freight division a substantial lift in revenue and it has returned an appreciable profit for the year.