We’ve listened to your feedback and we are hearing that the early starts are becoming increasingly untenable for many of you.

We know what our capacity is up on the ski area and on our chair lifts and we have no plans to increase this in the immediate future.

Our goal is to fill the mountain – not the car parks! We are also determined to reduce emissions associated with accessing and enjoying recreation on our incredible Maunga.

For more information, please visit our Sustainable slopes page

The average occupancy of vehicles parking in our base area car parks is sitting around 2.5. If we can increase this average closer to 4 and continue to use our new drop zone then we expect much shorter wait times on the fewer occasions that we need to shuttle from our lower car parks.

At peak times we will only be allowing full vehicles up to the base area car parks. Currently we close the road when the car parks are full. Next season, once we hit our capacity for the ski area (because we will be counting heads rather than cars) we will close the road. This does not happen often – typically around 4 or 5 times a season.

This new initiative will only take place when we expect to be busy. This happens around 25 days per season – usually at weekends when the weather and snow conditions are really good. We will update our “Car Pool Priority Day” forecast each Wednesday for the week ahead on our snow report to help you plan your travel.

Yes! We will be partnering with Snowman shuttles and substantially increasing capacity from Christchurch and Rolleston. For just $30 return, you will be able to book a seat departing at significantly more “civilised” time and have the convenience of guaranteed gear storage in the base area. Timetables will be published closer to the 2024 winter season.

We will be establishing additional Ride-share pick-up points and actively promoting the Snow Riders app and Mt Hutt Skifield Ride-share Facebook group.

We expect spaces in our base area car parks to remain available much later than we are currently seeing. We cannot guarantee availability if our base area carpark reaches capacity – but our drop zone will still be an available option.

NZSki will be heavily subsidising the increased bus service options from Christchurch and Rolleston. If required, our shuttle service from our lower car parks will be provided at no cost to guests. We are not planning to charge for car parking or introduce a booking system for our car parks on the mountain.

Staff will filter and direct traffic based on vehicle occupancy at Rakaia Saddle. We will have car parking staff at the Information Booth at the start of the access road to support Ride-sharing at this location. Additionally, it will be possible to Ride-share and fill your vehicle from the lower car parks provided there are spaces available in the base area.

The Information Booth will continue to be available as a pick-up point for all services, including Methven Travel services from both Methven and Christchurch, however we will not be offering a complimentary shuttle from this location – only from our Rakaia Saddle and Zed Creek car parks.

On Car Pool Priority Days we will operate our drop zone and allowing vehicles with 3 or more occupants to drop gear and passengers at our Base lodge and return to either our Rakaia Saddle or Zed Creek carparks for priority boarding on our shuttle buses to return to the Base Area car park.

Yes. Car Pool Priority Days will apply irrespective of First Tracks.

We will prioritise full vehicles, irrespective of the age of vehicle occupants and our staff will be checking vehicles at Rakaia Saddle to determine the number of occupants and directing vehicles accordingly.

Subject to demand, there may be earlier departures if you travelled on a bus. Additionally, we will set up a Ride-share pick-up point at the exit of the base area car park.

This has happened before. If this happens to you please come up and see our Admin team and they will work out a solution. You won’t need to spend the night up here.

We recognise when the mountain is busy, that our guests are guests feel a strong obligation to arrive with us earlier than is necessary in order to access the top car park in order to access the first lift.