Snowsure: 3.2
- Occasionally gets enough snow for skiing
- Is often closed due to a lack of snow
- Occasionally suffers from a lack of snow
- Rarely suffers from a lack of snow
- Whakapapa is snowsure even in the poorest seasons
Visitor reviews for Whakapapa Ski Resort
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(NOTE: Reviews may be edited by our content team for the purposes of ensuring accurate and relevant information)
(NOTE: Reviews may be edited by our content team for the purposes of ensuring accurate and relevant information)
Latest
July 27, 2025
Geoff Powdrell
Geoff Powdrell
I love this mountain and always will. I may have a different perspective to many because I always stay in one of the ski lodges on Whakapapa. Staying on the mountain is a beautiful experience. I took a party of 10 to stay at our lodge in August 2023 and we all had an amazing time, it was a great snow season. We tried the same again in August 2024 but the snow gods were not forthcoming. However, we improvised and did bush walks, hot pools and other activities to make up for the lack of snow and conditions. I have been coming here since I was a tiny tot in the late seventies so my views are the same, always a great experience at Whakapapa.
October 17, 2023
Janet from
New Zealand
Janet from
New Zealand
Went up to Whakapapa last Friday, amazing, lots of snow. The staff were just fantastic. It was a great experience. The restaurant was lovely and clean. All the staff were welcoming. I hope everything is sorted for next year. What a well run business. The lifties were so great holding the seat back for us. I have nothing but praise for the team at Whakapapa and the facilities. And the snow was amazing, brilliant day.
July 16, 2023
Barry M from
New Zealand
Barry M from
New Zealand
Just an appalling badly managed business and facilities. Used to visit Whakapapa regularly in early 2000s. Wow, has it changed for the worst. Incredibly obnoxious and rude staff, filthy and dirty overcrowed facilities. Endless queues for everything from toilets through to hiring, booking. Everything is booked online but they don't staff the facilities with enough staff to cope with the masses. Tiny eateries with huge queues to access food.
Happy Valley endless queues for ski gear hire, the line never got shorter in 4 hours we were there. So we decided to take kids onto Happy Valley with the snow passes we had already pre purchased. An hour after being on area up side away from any skiers or snowboarders a very angry and rude staff member aggressively and rudely ordered us and some others to get off the field and go play in the carpark area. She yelled at us, this area is only for skiing and snowboarding. I complained that there was no signage saying we had to ski or snowboard only. She got madder and threatened to trespass us if we didn't go immediately. So we packed up with kids and promptly left.
The first day we tried to get up the mountain we drove and were turned away. They had closed the road due to all carparks bring full, open at 9am.... We arrived at 9:20am. Day 1 pass wasted as no shuttle bookings left and three disappointed children. Insufficient carpark facilities and these fill up with freedom sightseers who don't enter the facilities. Or only go to ride the over priced gondola as there is no parking management. Once carpark is full it's one down one up rule, creating huge vehicle queues three quarters of the way down the Bruce Road. This also prevents the private shuttle buses from getting to drop off points in a timely manner. On bad days they close the road completely and turn back everyone except the shuttles.
As a result, legitimate customers whom have pre-purchased passes and gear are denied access to the mountain. Just a complete and utter fiasco.
So we booked a shuttle $160 for the following day and managed to get on the mountain.
Overall, it's not hard to see why the business is in liquidation. Just a poorly run setup. No communication, no signage, rude arrogant narcissistic staff. Hoards of people, dirty rundown facilities, nowhere near enough toilet facilities, bad and grossly over priced fast finger food: $12.50 for chips, $18 for wedges, $9.50 for pies and $8 for sausage roles.
Insufficient dinning space, small and very cramped. People are crammed in shoulder to shoulder and kids get stood on and knocked over. So we ate outside. Fortunately a blue sky day with no wind.
Terrible snow, I mean it's just groomed ice. Climate change has ruined the mountain. Only found good powder at 1900m or above. Most slopes are closed due to insufficient snow base. Best bring your ice skates as better suited to slopes than skis.
My advice would be don't go. Save your money up and visit the South Island. Both Whakapapa and Turoa have been ruined by corporate greed, inept management and extreme overcrowding a with gross under investment in infrastructure poor staff training and hiring of people who have no personality of people skills. As the mountain is managed through multi government agencies Department of Conservation, Waka Kotahi and Ruapehu District Council, in conjunction with local Iwi, there's an environment of complete chaos where nothing changes and nothing improves.
New Zealanders really can no longer access this mountain as rampant tourism and sightseeing has ruined it especially with introduction of the gondola ride.
Honestly, Ruapehu Ski deserved to go bankrupt, good job too. Shame the government has decided to bail them out to the tune of 5 million. What a waste of tax payers money.
October 01, 2022
Debbie from
New Zealand
Debbie from
New Zealand
A couple of corrections, Whakapapa ski area is located on the north western side of Mt Ruapehu, not the southern side. Turoa is located on the southern side. The image you're showing labelled Turoa is actually taken at Whakapapa.
(note from the editor: Debbie, could you write to me at [email protected] to tell me here there are errors in the text/images related to Whakapapa and Turoa ski areas. Cheers, Michelle)
September 20, 2022
April from
New Zealand
April from
New Zealand
Ruapehu is a volcano which means it has wicked terrain, Whakapapa on the south side is awesome.
There is loads of off-trail terrain to explore with plenty of fun and interesting on-trail runs.
It is also a great spot for learning. Happy Valley on the lower mountain is great for doing so and there's sometimes a slightly more advanced beginner area on the upper mountain near the top cafe. They also sometimes have a park set up next to a T-bar.
It is a tricky maunga (mountain) to plan for as the weather can change at any time. It's best to stay in the area for a week or plan trips last minute (literally the night before) to score epic days.
September 03, 2020
Bayley from
New Zealand
Bayley from
New Zealand
This mountain is one of a kind with the funniest people that arrive to the awesome terrain that can turn on.
This mountain is highly demanding but from skiing in other countries I must say I have had some of the best snow of all time, understanding where the snow is coming from is very key to skiing dry and rewarding pow.
Both sides of Ruapehu needs to be skied to sunlight / snow direction / wind direction and of course not following the crowds, if all align I can ensure you one of a kind skiing experience.
If you are skiing to experience the goods, try and ski with groups and with transceivers, Pinnacles can turn on early morning or arvo.
Enjoy and take the experience in.
August 29, 2019
Malman from
New Zealand
Malman from
New Zealand
A great mt when weather gods play well with excellent terrain. Challenging mountain, challenging to get lifts going. 2019 has seen storms lasting nearly three weeks in August; from a base of a 1 meter to now 2.5m. Tragically, after a week no progress with getting a large area of mt open. At west T-bar and chair end result = extreme crowding. Meanwhile, over at Turoa main lift is yet to open for another year- six seater express. Pretty disappointing if you were a season pass holder. Pick your days very carefully if going, it can be good if it all lines up!
July 22, 2019
Bob Le Quesne from
New Zealand
Bob Le Quesne from
New Zealand
Appalling customer service at ticketing today . Waiting in line about 1 hour. Poor customer service at Ski hire in Happy Valley. No customers for snowboards and 3 people standing around at that desk while people queuing to hire skis. Very, very slack service for a place charging top dollar. Tried to book online tonight to make tomorrow easier but only no ability to use online for under-fives. Come on, Whakapapa, get with it.
July 30, 2018
Carien from
New Zealand
Carien from
New Zealand
What a rip off! We love skiing, but not that much. We went there last Saturday, and were really looking forward it. Took 2 hours just to get up the mountain ($50 family of 4) was free last year when showing your pass going down. We tried to get a lift pass and had someone help who can’t speak or understand English. Once in, what a shock! 4 toilets each men/women for thousands of people. Filthy and smelly. The cafe did not have enough food available at any given time for the demand. People were sitting on the staircase because they can not handle that many. We had to stand whilst eating. Overpriced food. By now someone should have noticed the problems and fixed it since they are ripping off visitors. My first ever review and I just had to let everyone know what to expect. We will definitely not be going there again.
September 08, 2017
Chris from
New Zealand
Chris from
New Zealand
Keep up all the negative comments about Whakapapa, it will keep the hoards away! Seriously though, I don't know what people complain about. We are lucky to have a place to ski that doesn't require getting on a plane, if you live in the North Island. Whakapapa has all the terrain you could wish for if you are a serious skier with good ability and are prepared to do a little hiking; there are huge wide open slopes, steep bowls and shutes and great snow if you go on the back of a weather system. There is also great challenging terrain that is lift accessed if you're prepared to do some long traverses. I've been skiing Whakapapa for 45 years and have skied at a lot of overseas resorts but I still love our home ski field.
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