The Skotel Alpine Resort owner in Whakapapa Village claims the Department of Conservation is pandering to failed businesses in the Tongariro National Park when it comes to allocating staff accommodation.
Sam Clarkson is seeking village accommodation for at least eight Skotel employees, essential for fire evacuation, he said, but all buildings currently vacant are reserved for a possible future operator of the derelict Chateau Tongariro.
The Chateau has been empty since early 2023 though recently it has been the subject of a Government request for proposals from interested parties to strengthen, renovate and reopen the historic hotel.
The proposals will inform fresh advice to Conservation Minister Tama Potaka for further decision-making related to the Chateau’s future. Reopening remains uncertain, and, if it happens, is likely years away.
The Department of Conservation’s (DoC’s) national asset strategy manager Adam Liao confirmed the Skotel has an accommodation allocation for two staff and that all vacant staff accommodation buildings in the village, constituting 116 staff beds, are “currently held under 17ZG(2)(a) of the Conservation Act due to the Chateau RFP [request for proposals]”.
This part of the act gives the Conservation Minister wide powers to encourage specific concession applications on public conservation land.
In response to the Herald’squestions, Potaka said: “the 116 beds (based on bedrooms) are spread across the ancillary buildings of the Chateau and were held under the previous concession therefore unavailable for use”.*
He said that DoC is assessing the accommodation allocation in conjunction with the Chateau RFP and until the process is completed the buildings remain unavailable.
Clarkson said he’s at a loss to figure out how Skotel can warrant just two staff beds, while the Chateau commanded 116 staff beds when it closed in 2023. (The measure of beds is based on bedrooms.
Skotel has 56 guest rooms, a dining room and 35 fulltime staff.
The Chateau has about 115 guest rooms and a dining room, and, for many years, included the operation of a cafe and tavern. In its deeper past, its operations also included ski field businesses such as rentals.
It had about 36 staff when it closed, but, according to the Ruapehu District Council, its staff numbers averaged 75-100 from 2015 to 2020.
Even the highest of these staff figures suggests the Chateau had an outsized allocation of staff beds compared with Skotel.
Whakapapa is a state-managed village and Clarkson told the Herald that DoC has repeatedly taken the approach of reserving staff accommodation there for businesses that have failed, in one way or another, and that are sucking up considerable sums of taxpayer money.
He said officials’ decision-making in allocating staff quarters should be based on the essential staff requirements of all concessionaires.
DoC’s Tongariro National Park Management Plan states: “Staff accommodation in Whakapapa Village is only for those employees who cannot practically live outside the village. These include core duty staff, emergency service personnel, essential staff for the operation of large concessions, and some management staff. This restriction ensures that the volume of accommodation required is consistent with the essential services philosophy.
“The department believes that present accommodation caters for sufficient numbers of staff overall and that further building for the purpose of housing extra staff cannot be justified.”
Whakapapa Village is relatively isolated; the nearest town of more than 1000 residents is Ohakune, some 50km away.
Clarkson said his current effort to secure more staff accommodation, which has arisen in conjunction with his application to renew Skotel’s DoC concession before it expires in 2028, is shaping up to be a redux of his previous, fruitless effort to secure accommodation when the company that ran the local Whakapapa ski field went into administration.
He said he applied for the accommodation buildings of Ruapehu Alpine Lifts in 2023 but DoC ringfenced the buildings, also under section 17ZG(2)(a) of the Conservation Act.
“Only applicants who applied to operate Whakapapa ski field were able to apply for the associated accommodation buildings,” DoC’s Liao confirmed.
Liao also said Clarkson’s requests for staff accommodation at that time, “did not constitute formal applications and advice was provided to this effect”.
Clarkson claimed he made an application for the accommodation on June 19, 2023, and that the following day DoC applied section 17ZG to the buildings. However, he said he was not advised of this decision for 18 months, when the department’s acceptance of a new concession application for the ski field, by Whakapapa Holdings, was publicly notified in November 2024.
The Chateau and Whakapapa ski field have received considerable public funding.
The Chateau has cost about $6m to maintain while empty (though the main building and ancillary buildings, including staff quarters, have continued to deteriorate).
The ski field, across the previous and failed operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, which also funded operation of the Turoa ski field, and the current operator, Whakapapa Holdings (WHL), has absorbed $50m in Crown funds since 2022, including concessionary debt – more if you include the contingent liability for ski field clean-up and infrastructure removal that the Crown has absorbed.
WHL has an allocation of 48 staff beds in the Whakapapa Village, while DoC itself has 23 beds. The department said there is a total of 203 staff beds in the village.
Clarkson and his wife Kaz Crawley bought the Skotel (formally the Ski Hotel) in 2018. They own the buildings but not the land and occupy a manager’s cottage, which constitutes the two staff beds allocated to the business.
Clarkson said that for seven of the eight years since the couple have been seeking permission to obtain staff quarters in the village.
Potaka said the allocation of two staff beds to the Skotel was clear at the time of Clarkson’s 2018 purchase and concession agreement.
Potaka said the buildings assigned to existing concessions are unavailable for other uses, but DoC is currently “working to understand accommodation needs in Whakapapa Village, both with regard to the Chateau ancillary buildings, and the limitations applied by the Tongariro National Park Management Plan”.
He said changes proposed in the Conservation Amendment Bill, which passed first reading this week, will provide the Government with greater flexibility to respond to pressures, including for staff accommodation, in the park.
*This story has been updated to clarify the meaning of a quote attributed to Minister Potaka.
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