Preserving access through ski areas on public lands

FMC has submitted on a 30 year concession renewal application  – including summer and winter non-skiing activities – for the Treble Cone Ski Field in the Motatapu Conservation Area, public conservation land near Wanaka.  

The ski area and surrounds are an important recreational asset for local clubs and the wider public, and a nationally significant flying site for the NZ Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association and Southern Paragliding Club.

The application is in the vanguard of ski area concession renewals as first generation concessions come to expiry (The Remarkables is next, in 2022). Many of those operations, whose sniff-of-an-oily-rag community spirit gained them enabling concession conditions, have become mature commercial entities.

Treble Cone has largely maintained good relationships with clubs and the broader community. FMC’s submission requests formalisation of those arrangements within the concession. It also asserts that any additional commercial activity should not be in tension with public recreational rights, and that road closures for ‘health and safety’ reasons should not be used for commercial convenience or advantage. 

(Additionally, we pointed out their application for “up to 200 guided snowmobile trips per year” was inconsistent with provisions in the Otago Conservation Management Strategy and should be declined outright.) 

As new ski area applications arise, FMC is focused on ensuring public recreational values are properly recognised, in accord with DOC’s statutory duty to foster recreation, in any new agreements. 

You can read the Treble Cone application on the DOC website and our submission through our FMC public archives.

Feature image: Ski Touring in the North Motatapu Conservation Area, accessed via the Treble Cone Ski area / D. Clearwater