Skiers and snowboarders will have a new Wanaka chairlift and fresh terrain to explore by the time winter rolls around.

Cardrona Alpine Resort has begun construction of a chairlift which will provide access to Willow Basin, which features primary and intermediate level terrain in the Soho Ski Area.

The Willow Quad chair will be the first part of Soho, the terrain that sits on the reverse face of Mt Cardrona, to be made accessible by chairlift.

“Our dream is to create a ski experience unlike anything else in New Zealand, where you go on an adventure through different valleys and basins while soaking in fantastic views – this move into Soho Ski Area is the first step in unlocking that vision,” general manager Bridget Legnavsky said.

Cardrona announced the acquisition of the ski area rights for Soho, which overlooks the Wakatipu Basin and the Southern Alps, in 2018. 

The former McDougalls Quad is being refurbished to become the new Willows Quad.

The new Willows trail map. IMAGE: James Niehues

The disused chairlift was originally proposed for the Pringles terrain within Soho, but when rare lizards were discovered in the area in early 2020, Cardrona abandoned the Pringles project.

“When we made the decision not to continue with the Pringles project, we knew we wanted to use the lift elsewhere on the resort. It turned out that it was a perfect fit for the Willows terrain,” Bridget said.

The new chairlift will also address some of the resort’s capacity challenges that were highlighted during the busy July school holiday period in 2020.

Valley View Quad will be back operational in 2021, and with the new Willows Quad also in action by then, the resort’s uphill lift capacity will be 44 per cent greater than it was in 2020, Bridget said.

The Willow Quad will be the first new major lift-accessed terrain in New Zealand since the opening of the Valley View Quad at Cardrona in 2012.

Further lifts are planned in the future, including the main Soho express chairlift which will link the area to the top of Captain’s Basin.