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Visitor reviews for Whakapapa Ski Resort
Click here to submit your own review of Whakapapa
(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
September 03, 2020
Bayley from
New Zealand
Bayley from

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

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

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

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

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.
July 25, 2017
Ted Norman from
New Zealand
Ted Norman from

Went to Whakapapa Ski Field on Tuesday 18th July 2017 with the family; glorious sunshine day, a mass of visitors. There was chaos everywhere when trying to book tickets, but some staff were quite rude especially down in Happy Valley. When we asked the lady how to get tickets in the sledge area, she loudly stated, "I can't speak to you over this fence (a metal gate) get in front of me." Another area where we were waiting inside to get ski lift tickets, another of the staff confronts a group of us in line "Where are you going, I'm going that way pointing through us" It was more of the tone used in both these statements (which in my view reflected a touch of arrogance). Not wingeing just pure observation, that could reflect not good for our Maori staff.
June 20, 2017
Kane from
New Zealand
Kane from

Whakas....love the place; best terrain in the country, without a doubt, when it's on. Such a unique place to ski and ride. Yea, it gets nailed by weather at times but on a good day ya can't beat it. Ya can stick Qtown and their average terrain and pissed Aussies. All the whinging about weather and staff and bla bla generally comes from Aucklanders with to much money. One suggestion for them: go to Qtown!
July 26, 2016
Graham from
New Zealand
Graham from

This is a difficult mountain to get a good day's skiing. If its the weekend and fine then it can be very, very crowded to the point of unbearable. There are many windy days when the lifts do not run. The mountain management seem to cater for day tripping families who hire gear and go to Happy Valley. After 25 years observation I believe there is little interest in the serious skier.
It must be a hard field to manage given the unpredictable and unsettled weather that prevails.
October 26, 2015
Paul from
New Zealand
Paul from
