What is up with Ohakune New Zealand

Move to Wanaka end of story.

Yea Wanaka is the number one ski town in NZ. But still wanting opinions on Ohakune

Firstly Kune is pumping as a ski town and living there is an awesome time but it can seem dead if you're from out of town. Ruapehu is a completely different mt to the southern lakes fields both in terms of environment and target customer. The Ruapehu Region doesn't have the same options for activities as the QT/wanaka, due to both being a national park and there simply being less natural along with financial resources to invest in adventure tourism (that being said the world's first commercial bungee was on the viaduct on the OCR). So when it comes to those closed periods all you can do is go for a walk or try to find something to entertain yourself. theres only about 800 permanent residents compared with 8/20,000 down south, so in winter on some weekends the amount of people in town can be 10x that. which makes it awesome for business in winter but most simply shut around the last week of the season.

RAL's biggest customer also isn't a chinese family paying thousands for a couple days of skiing, food, rentals etc. it's the first time family who's doing it on a bit more of a budget, driven up/down and gonna also pay for the sledding area. almost all the winter residents work up the hill so you don't see them in town. and Finally people don't travel from overseas to ski or train at turoa like they do down south so there will never be as big of ski culture.

there is an awesome vibe within the town and it might not be Wanaka but at least its not that shithole queenstown

also i can honestly say that the parties/bar nights at suitcase are infinitely better than any party or bar i went to when i lived in wanaka.

Thanks for the in depth reply . Pretty much confirming a few things I thought might have been the reasons and a few more valid points. I also wondered how much the mountain its self actually endorses staying / basically spending money in Ohakune? I mean does the mountain actively work with the council to increase profits for the town and mountain ? or does the mountain mostly just look after itself and the town just benefits because its close?

Thanks for the in depth reply . Pretty much confirming a few things I thought might have been the reasons and a few more valid points. I also wondered how much the mountain its self actually endorses staying / basically spending money in Ohakune? I mean does the mountain actively work with the council to increase profits for the town and mountain ? or does the mountain mostly just look after itself and the town just benefits because its close?

There is no field without the town and because it is on a national park there is a huge amount of work between RAL, the iwi, council and doc to ensure that everyone is getting the most out of it. RAL is a trust and all its profits must be used to pay for investments including some game changing projects coming through in the very near future. Chev the new GM is an absolutely amazing and experienced guy with some awesome new ideas and along with the rest of the ops team and CEO ross copland will really change both winter and summer at turoa and kune.

Kune is fucking awesome. One of the best seasons I did was living in the middle there in 2014. Easy walk to either end. Idk. Ruapehu has a damn long season as well.

People rock the south island though. Idk, I got some fantastic runs up north. Also that crater view is tits.

Also if anyone is currently living in, or regularly in Ohakune, I'm trying to pass a message onto the lady that owns 101 Mirro. He email didn't work but would like to tell them thanks for everything.