Temple Basin raises profile

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 32

Temple Basin raises profile

Temple Basin near Arthur’s Pass is selling itself to the ski-ing public this year to an unprecedented extent for a “mere” club field.

The field has already had a significant presence at the Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin ski shows with Greymouth and Wellington still to go. At both Auckland and Dunedin, Temple Basin was the only club field represented and down south Mount Hutt was the only other Canterbury field there.

"We could really reposition ourselves in the market,” said a Temple Basin spokesperson, Katrina Duncan. “People get the impression we’re private and inaccessible.”

For the record, Temple Basin is in the mountains of the Arthur’s Pass National Park and is the home of both the Temple Basin (formerly Christchurch) and Canterbury University ski clubs. To •get there, a walk between 40 to 60 min is required, but there is a good lift.

Katrina Duncan said that the promotion at the ski shows had served to highlight what Temple Basin was up to. “The

interest has been astronomical.”

The Temple Basin Ski Club’s new, or rebuilt, accommodation lodge is regarded as a bonus, making the place more desirable. Stage one of the twostorey lodge redevelopment will be completed before July 1, though the new facility will be officially opened this Saturday. Stage one cost $320,000 and takess in a large accommodation wing with mirror glass windows. New lounge and dining facilities will follow next year.

With four-person bunkrooms the accommodation should be comfortable and a litttle more private this year. Temple Basin is offering 13 ski weeks and a number of those are already full, including four which the West Coast seemed to take as its own. Parents are even sending their children from as far away as Australia and the North Island for fully supervised “kids’ weeks.” The Temple Basin club is expecting its ski weekend package to be attractive for non members with ski-ing at the usual $l5 a day and a $3O charge for dinner, bed and breakfast. “They can ski the week-end away for $60,” said Katrina Duncan. With the two accommo-

dation lodges Temple Basin officially sleeps 100 but 120 might be squeezed in for the Celebrity Ski Week-end on July 29 and 30.

The focus of that weekend will be a two and a half hour ski-ing and running race incorporating the whole ski-field. Katrina Duncan said it will have a Le Mans-style start and will mainly involve ski-ing with “about half-an-hour on the hoof — depending how slow you are.”

Because the event itself is something different they are looking at getting a unique trophy for it —

possibly a cast-iron iron on a ski.

The race has already attracted a number of sponsors, including Tranz alpine and Atomic, but a major sponsor is still being sought. With its location right in the Main Divide the ski area is more likely to get the winter snows and last year it enjoyed an average snow depth of more than a metre during the entire season.

• Temple Basin, 4km west of Arthur’s Pass, 160 km from Christchurch, three rope tows, vertical drop 457 metres. Adult lift charge: $l5.