Australian 'invasion'

Press, 26 May 1977, Page 20

Australian 'invasion'

South Island ski enthusiasts would do well to prepare themselves this season for sharing a T-bar or chair-lift with Bazza McKenzie types who use expressions such as “stone the crows” and “having a technicolour yawn.” Australians have been patronising Coronet Peak for some years but Mount Hutt, too, is now becoming very popular with our Tasman neighbours. Last year Value Tours arranged trips for more than 800 Australians and about 60 per cent of them went to Mount Hutt with the rest going south to Coronet Peak. Two or three years ago few “Aussies” had even heard of Mount Hutt but now they are coming in droves. Paul Waremg, who runs Value Tours in Christchurch, says he already has 1700 bookings “and I reckon we’ll eat 2000.” At least 800 of

these visitors should be heading for Mount Hutt although tours have been arranged all over the South Islana. The most popular trip with this company is “Ski the big two” (Mount Hutt and Coronet Peak), an addition from last year’s tour alternatives. A Ski-Hi tour. “Ski 3,” this year includes Tekapo as well as Mount Hutt and Coronet and offers an interchangeable lift ticket. All these figures do not, of course, include the hundreds of Australians who come to New Zealand under their own steam and stay for the ski-ing season. The Auckland-based Powder Hound magazine has been pushing New Zealand ski fields generally in Australia and recently it sent 50,000 copies of its pre-season issue across the Tasman.