AERIAL RAILWAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22541, 5 October 1936, Page 11

AERIAL RAILWAY

MOUNT KUAPEHU PLAN REPORTS TO GOVERNMENT GREAT VALUE TO SKIERS Consideration is being given to the question of constructing a funicular or aerial railway on Mount Ttiiapchu at Tongariro National Park. Estimates of the cost of providing such a. facility from different points, and plans of the type of installation required, are being drawn, and the matter will later be considered by the Government. The Public Works Department, is inquiring into the subject, and reports have been obtained from the Chateau and other sources. The project was raised during the ski championships at National Park last month by j\li\ Colin Wvatt, the noted English ski jumper, and Mr. T. W. Mitchell, captain of the Australian team, who lias had considerable European experience, and they discussed it with the general manager of the Tourist Department, Mr. L. J. Schmitt.

It is understood the type of service favoured at present would be a car suspended from a wire hawser. It would be capable of holding at least ten persons, with an upper terminus far enough up the mountain to justify a claim that visitors could travel to the top of Iluapehu. It is likely that the lower terminus would be at the Chateau.

After an inspection of the snowfields last month, Mr. Wyatt told a Herald representative that the provision of a funicular would make National Park a really first-class ski-ing resort. Until such a facility was provided, New Zealand ski-ing would be handicapped in competition with overseas countries, as skiers could get less than half tlio amount of downhill running in a day they would otherwise enjoy. i The construction of an aerial railway or a funicular on Huapehu would not be difficult or very expensive, he said, becauso of the abundance of firm rock foundations. Even a funicular going up Huapehu 1500 ft. from tlio Salt Hut would be of great value to skiers, and should pay for itself in four or fivo years, if European experience would be taken as a guide.