A century enjoying the slopes of Mt Ruapehu

Hut Flat with the lodge in 1959.

Two New Zealanders, both novices, began recreational skiing on the Central Plateau giant 100 years ago next month after a determined two-day trip from Auckland by train, horse-drawn buggy and on foot

When the pioneers of snow sports at Mt Ruapehu first nosed their wooden skis into the area nearly a century ago, the journey from Auckland took the best part of two days by train, horse-drawn coach and foot.

These days, the trip takes four to five hours by car.

Bill Mead and Bernard Drake were the first to ski in the Mt Ruapehu area. Novices, they made their first run on their newly acquired Swiss skis on July 26, 1913, in the vicinity of Waihohonu Hut, where they were staying. The hut, between Mts Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe, is several kilometres west of the Desert Rd, on which the pair had travelled to the area by buggy.

Writing of their experience, they reported "a glorious run down for about a mile to the hut", former Herald journalist Alan Graham says in his new book, Mount Ruapehu, 100 years of skiing.

Several days later, they made the first "ski visit" to Whakapapa, reaching the locality that is today the base area of Ruapehu's northern-slopes ski and boarding field.

Five days after their first ski run, the pair posted a notice at the hut that they had formed the Ruapehu Ski Club - which has now published Graham's book.

They had been visiting the area for several years and at Christmas in 1913 made the first ski ascent to Ruapehu's Crater Lake, where Drake is pictured in the book on his skis with one pole and an iceaxe.

The first recorded use of skis in New Zealand was in Central Otago in 1874, according to An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. In 1893, homemade skis were used to cross the Grand Plateau in an attempt to climb Aoraki-Mt Cook.

Waihohonu Hut was the only suitable winter accommodation in the Ruapehu-Ngauruhoe area and remained the base for skiing until 1920. It was suggested early on that Mt Tongariro could become a popular skiing area, but once a hut was built at what is now Whakapapa village, Mt Ruapehu, a 2797m-high volcano, was set on its path to becoming the home of two commercial fields, Whakapapa and Turoa, and a club field, Tukino, on its eastern slopes.

The Chateau Tongariro was built in 1929, followed by a proliferation of club huts at Whakapapa skifield.

"World War II and some spectacular eruptions in 1945-46 put a hold on skiing for a while," says Graham, "but from 1947, more and more club huts were built. The road end and the skiing HQ were pushed through to their present site ... the Top o' the Bruce at 1630m and the first high-capacity rope tows were built."

Ski instructor Walter Haensli and Wellington businessman Bryan Todd "devised Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, which built the first chairlift in 1954. This lift, opened by Ruapehu Ski Club member Sir Ed Hillary, was quickly followed by more chairlifts, T-bars, platter lifts and Pomalifts."

Rope tows were installed on the southwestern, Ohakune side of Ruapehu in the 1960s but it wasn't until 1978 that Turoa opened as a commercial enterprise with chairlifts.

Turoa and Whakapapa plan to open for the season on June 29.

Downhill delights

1913 first skiing in Mt Ruapehu area

1920 22-bunk hut built at Whakapapa village

1929 Chateau Tongariro built

1945 Eruptions

1949-51 First high-capacity rope tows, Whakapapa

1954 First chairlift, Whakapapa

1978 Chairlifts at Turoa

1995-96 Eruptions

2000 Ruapehu Alpine Lifts buys Turoa