Laura Hedley: Cardrona and Treble Cone Chief Mountain Officer on Cardrona becoming New Zealand's largest ski field

Cardrona Alpine Resort has officially launched their highly-anticipated Soho Basin - expanding to become  New Zealand’s largest commercial ski area.

The expansion was part of a long-term investment program by RealNZ, Cardrona’s parent company, and it increases the area's total footprint to 615 hectares.

Cardrona and Treble Cone Chief Mountain Officer Laura Hedley says as soon as the conditions are right, they'll be opening the area up for skiing.

"There's 150 hectares of terrain in there, which is huge. It's new terrain, no one's been in there...we were really conscious when we did the terrain trail development so that we could keep it as natural as possible."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks edb so.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
As I mentioned, today, Kadrona officially becomes New Zealand's largest
commercial ski field. The launch and opening eats new Soho
Basin is taking place shortly this morning, in about half
an hour. The new development adds another one hundred and
fifty hectes, bringing Kadrona's total ski area to six hundred
and fifteen hectares. Joining me from the launch as Laura Headley,

(00:33):
Chief Mountain Officer Kadrona and Triple Cone. Good morning, Good morning,
but chilly this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
It is. It's very chilly this morning, so winter's come back,
which is awesome for us.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Now, look, this has been a decade in the planning
the opening of the new Soho Basin.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
How big has this project been.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
It's been huge day we've been I mean everybody's been
dreaming about skiing in that basin and we've had the
last two years of construction work and other lists ready
to go. So we're going to our official blessing today
with Minister and EWI and our contractors that worked with us,
and then as soon as we get the right conditions,

(01:12):
we'll be opening it up for skiing.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
Who gets the first run?

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Who was braves to get down there faster?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
What does Zhoe Basin offer across both the terrain and
the wider experience of the area.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, there's like one hundred and fifty height years of
terrain in there, which is huge. Right, it's new terrain.
No one's being in there. It's really rollly and playful.
We were really conscious when we did the terrain trail
development that we could keep it as natural as possible.
So I think people have a lot of fun. It's advanced,
that's intermediate terrain. Yeah, it's just it's a game change

(01:46):
of being able to open up that much more skiing terrain.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yeah, I did see that.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
You called it the biggest leap forward for skiing in
a generation. Is that just because of the size of it.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yeah. Yeah, It's not often in New Zealand that yet
to open up the new terrain like this. You know,
we had all of our pioneers back in the seventies
and eighties who opened up all the ski fields around
New Zealand, and it's been a while since we've been
able to open more. So, you know, We're pretty stoked.
I can't wait to be able to share it with people.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
And Laura, look, you buy your ski pass and it's included,
it's not extra to head over to that basin.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
It's included.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yep, excellent. How are you looking for snow?

Speaker 3 (02:27):
So we didn't need a bit of a warm patch
at the start of this week, but we got it
by a very cold patch two days ago and yesterday,
and so it's looking much better. So we need to
get our teams out in there. We'll get some groomers
out in there as soon as we can, and we'll
be opening the train to the public as soon as possible.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
And as part of this development, you've also had to
continue investing in snowmaking.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
How crucial is that.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, snowmaking is really important, especially early season, so it
gets up a really good base to make sure that
we're really consistent. This year, we had a pretty lean
start and our main basin opened on majority of snowmaking,
so we put investment into We've put some investment into
so High as well. We're going to be building a
water reservoir out there next year, so from next year

(03:13):
there'll be a huge amount of capacity in that'sho Basin,
so it should be really good for us to get
it open on time.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Laura, this is going to be hugely appealing to people.
I mean, Kadrona is already a hugely appealing mountain, especially
for families, and we're heading into the school holidays. Is
the rest of the mountain prepared for potentially more people
to want to ski at Kadrona.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah, yeah, So it wasn't just a list for us.
We needed to make sure we were ready everywhere else.
So we've put in more car parks, We've put in
more restaurants, so we're opening up a new restaurant from
tomorrow up the hill. We got a new retail store.
We've done upgrades on things like power and water and
storm water and everything that we needed to get ourselves
ready to have more people up there so that they
have a great time, because we want to make sure

(03:55):
that when people come up they just have the most
amazing experience up here, and so we've put a lot
into getting it ready for this day.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
Fantastic, have a wonderful day.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
That was Laura Headley, Chief Mountain Officer of a Cadrone
and Triple Comb Well It's going to be a great
school holiday down there, isn't it if you're heading that way.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks at B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.