Comment
Share
Posted on Wednesday August 26th at 11:12 p.m.
Tweet
A consortium of New Zealand and Australian investors that bought the Porters Ski Area 2 1/2 years ago wants to build European-style accommodation for up to 3000 people at the foot of the mountain and expand the 700-hectare ski area into the adjoining Crystal Valley.
The plan, which could take 10 years to complete, would include more terrain for family and intermediate skiers.
The consortium proposes a gondola up to the slopes from a car park and resort at the base of the ski area, snowmaking on the main trails and a ski trail through regenerating native beech forest down to the village for skiers at the end of the day.
Proposed Alpine Village and Increased Ski Area at Porters
Proposed Alpine Village and Increased Ski Area at Porters
Proposed Alpine Village and Increased Ski Area at Porters
Blackfish - comprising the families of Christchurch investor and Porters Ski Area managing director Michael Sleigh and of Sydney businessmen Duncan Bull and Simon Harvey - wants the development to be environmentally acceptable.
Sleigh said skiers could drive on sealed roads from Christchurch to the car park, and from there get on the gondola.
Snowmaking was essential to attract tourists, he said. "If you are an Australian looking at a ski holiday, you want to know you will arrive and that skiing will be open."
The field, an hour's drive from Christchurch, employed 40 staff, he said, but the new resort would employ another 35 in permanent jobs and up to 400 in seasonal work.
He wanted the field to be as big as Mt Hutt, the region's biggest ski area, which sells five times as many lift passes as Porters.
"It would be great for Canterbury to have another big ski area," Sleigh said.
"New Zealand tourism, particularly winter tourism, has still got really good opportunities to grow in a global sense."
Ski-fields are having a record season because fewer Kiwis are going overseas for holidays and Australians are favouring New Zealand fields over their own.
Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism chief executive Christine Prince said having two large commercial ski-fields in the region would boost tourism.
"For us to be more competitive, to be offering more direct ski product against Queenstown, would be fantastic," she said.
"We have a far greater frequency of flights, we're cheaper and more accessible."
Destination Queenstown chief executive Stephen Pahl played down suggestions of rivalry with Canterbury.
"We've never taken the position that we're competing with anyone else," he said. "Queenstown holds a unique position in the ski market and I think we'll retain that."
Plans for what Sleigh called a small, carbon-neutral alpine village at Porter Heights hinge on a proposed land swap with the Department of Conservation (DOC).
Porters is on a perpetual lease from the department, but for accommodation to be built, investors will want the land to be freehold.
Blackfish proposes swapping 15ha adjoining the Lords Bush Scenic Reserve near Springfield for 21ha of DOC-owned land on the Porters access road.
Sleigh said the first step in the plan was to gain approval for the land acquisition and to get resource consents from the Selwyn District Council and Environment Canterbury.
"We hope to have that resolved fairly soon - a matter of months."
The village would operate year-round as a centre for other activities, such as tramping and mountainbiking.
Sleigh told the Canterbury-Aoraki Conservation Board last week that his company would set up an environmental restoration trust and assume financial and operational responsibility for restoring the former farmland near Lords Bush.
Sleigh told The Press he hoped work could start in two or three years.
"I think the proposition is compelling. With our increasing closeness with Australia, it's potentially not a bad time."
Redeveloping the ski-field would cost about $40m, while accommodation would be "much more", at a total of between $200m and $300m, he said.
Alps Exert Pull on Developer
The Christchurch man with the grand plans for the Porters Ski Area spent some time in the North Island, but the Southern Alps called him back.
Michael Sleigh's name may seem apt for someone in the snow industry but is pronounced "slee".
The Timaru-born, 41-year-old father of three boys boarded at Christ's College in Christchurch and is a lawyer with a longstanding interest in conservation and tourism.
"I grew up from five years old skiing. I originally worked in Dunedin after going to Otago University, and then went to Auckland," he said.
"I came back to the South Island and Christchurch from Auckland about 10 years ago. I missed the mountains and the skiing."
Access to Crystal Valley is an easy traverse from Porters but at present is not patrolled or Avalanche controlled.
Crystal Valley on it's own is about the same size as Mt Hutt Ski Area.
After working in several law firms, he was employed by state-owned power company Meridian Energy for seven years, including at one stage as commercial director for Project Aqua.
Sleigh and Sydney business partners Duncan Bull and Simon Harvey bought the Porters Ski Area for redevelopment in January 2007 for an undisclosed sum, believed to have been a little more than $1 million.
Sleigh is a shareholder and director of Southern Hemisphere Proving Grounds near Wanaka, used by the world's automotive industry for cold-weather testing of cars.
He is a trustee of the James Ormond Wallace Trust for young New Zealand film and multimedia artists, and has been a trustee of the Christchurch International Arts Festival, the Otamahua/Quail Island Ecological Restoration Trust and the Save the St James Theatre Trust in Dunedin.
Sleigh family members are keen skiers, taking to the slopes at Porters every weekend.
SOURCE: The Press