Dave Mazey: Whakapapa Holdings CEO on the potential sale of the Whakapapa ski field and it operating next season

The potential buyers of Whakapapa skifield are optimistic it'll be open for business come next ski season.  

Cabinet's agreed to give a $5 million loan to Whakapapa Holdings to support its bid to buy the ski field, but only if it gets a concession from the Conservation Minister. 

If granted, the sale's expected to be completed next April so it can open by July for the 2025 season. 

Whakapapa Holdings Chief Executive Dave Mazey told Andrew Dickens they're not worried about the turnaround.  

He says the receivers will be trading the company up until that settlement date and preparing it for winter. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Despite the fact that Shane Jones said no more money
for RAL, Cabinet has approved a five minute end old
bone for Fucking Papa Holdings limits it to buy RuPay
Who's Fucker Papa ski Field, So the loan hangs on
Fucker Papa Holdings getting a concession to run the skifield
from the Department of Conservation. This could be complete by April,
ready for the twenty twenty five ski season. So Dave
Maysie as a man trying to hold it all together

(00:20):
and joins in Now, Hello.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Dave, Hello Andrew, how are you.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
I'm very good and obviously I'm a former life pass
owner from nineteen seventy six. Mate, I want this field
to go, will it? I wanted to work.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
No, it'll go. It'll work, it will be successful and
it'll get back to contributing to central North of Island
economy in particular and the lifestyle of a lot of Kiwis.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
It's fuck Papa Holdings in any way related to the
old RAL rupey who our plane lips?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
No, No, I'm the own me. You're the only one
an individual that's got an association with RAL from years
gone by.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
The government's giving cash I mean, do you have private
backers who will step in from April?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
You know, there's a group of investors that come out
of the South Island Office, which is a cross Chage
based investment company and myself the investors. If you get.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Approval from the Department of If you get approval from
the Department of Conservation, it comes to in April, does
that give you enough time to be skiing in July.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, the receivers will be trading the company up until
that settlement day and they'll be preparing it for winter.
So yes, we don't have an issue with it.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Something I've always asked is if I wondered about is
what's happening to the ski clubs that are on Fuckerpata
because there's about forty or fifty of them up there.
I used to belong to Christiania Made of Mine, used
to be the president of Tahara Nuku. I mean, there's
a lot of infrastructure up there that is dependent on
people being able to ski.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, and that's part of the risks for Focker Parper
not trading going towards there's fifty eyed lodges there. They're
still they're still there. There's still very much as you
will remember. And if the skier is not, there reasonable
expectation that those lodges will all all those clubs will

(02:19):
fall over and that for the next five to ten years,
and someone's got to pick up the cost of their removing.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Oh yeah, now that's the other thing. When when this
field falls over or touro fall falls over, the Department
of Conservation demands that you then have to re establish
the mountain. You're going to take down the kit another
and if you had to take down all the ski
field kit, that's one hundred million dollars to take down
a holiday kit that does nothing.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Why well, it's a World Heritage site that's sincerely strong
and highly regarded attributes associated with them on or it's
incredibly significant to local ee and you don't lead strained
their sets in a national park. When road bridges get

(03:06):
roads get realigned, and a bridge is redundant through a
national park, it gets fully removed in the land restored,
same principle.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
So expensive and one last question.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
The companies were clubs have gone into receivership or liquidation,
then that that cost falls on dark or the government.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
And finally the skywalker, which is the gondola. Is that
separate to the ski operation? I mean, will that always
continue because it has a sightseeing thing, it has a
restaurant at the top. Is that sort of separated from
the rest of the company and the operation.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Now that it's one of the assets that will be.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Buying so which means you can operate all year long. Dave, look,
I wish you obviously only the best of luck and
we should know this by April.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
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