He said the chairlift was "fairly full" when it stopped and staff are now going through the process of evacuating everyone from their seats.
"To make sure nobody got cold we went through the process of evacuating everybody.
He said police were called in to assist the evacuation as a precautionary measure.
"It is precautionary to get the search and rescue people in because many of them have experience in evacuating people from high cables.
"We have evacuation training with them, and they are on their way to give us back up but they may well find they get here and we have done it all, but we have taken the precaution of getting their assistance."
He said the evacuation process entails a belay process of pulleys and hooks.
"A pulley and hook goes over the cable and they run it down from chair to chair and belay them down.
"If the weather was bad then it becomes a bigger issue but it is very pleasant conditions so it is just a process we have to go through to get them all off."
He said the snowfields had two other lifts which were still working.
"We have had a very happy crowd up there, on a beautiful Friday afternoon. The conditions are really nice, sunny and warm and good snow conditions as well."
He said the chairlift would require heat and hammers to pop the bull wheel back in place.
The Ohau Snow Fields is a small family-run business near Lake Ohau in the Mackenzie High Country in the South Island.
