Recent Projects

Coronet Peak - New Zealand

Design, specification, planning,and completion certification for NZ$10m fully automatic snow making installation comprising:

• 3 water storage reservoirs
• 3 pump stations
• 141 snow making machines
• Integration with the existing 3 pump station, 62 gun system

Coronet Peak is New Zealand's leading ski area and attracts large and diverse international clientele. Strong product and market driven growth had lead the resort to develop a plan for significant future development in facilities and infrastructure to cater for this ongoing growth potential.

Coronet Peak while enjoying significant advantages in terms of the attractiveness of its ski slopes and its close proximity to New Zealand's top visitor destination Queenstown is also the lowest altitude ski area in Australasia with consequent variability in snow conditions.

NZSki Ltd the owners and operators of the resort wished to ensure the ongoing success of the ski area and to secure returns on the very significant planned capital development programme.

AAL was engaged to develop plans and specifications for a snow making system that would:

• enable the resort to open consistently and reliability in early June each year.
• ensure all major ski slopes and trails were open for skiing by the critical holiday period commencing in late June.
• ensure that snow coverage and snow conditions enabled the resort to operate at maximum capacity for the full 3 month core season July, August and September.
• increase production and reduce operating costs.
• drive strong financial returns for the business.

Following extensive consultation with the company owners, management, key operations personnel and suppliers and a thorough analysis of core technical requirements AAL developed a Master Snow Making Development Plan for Coronet Peak. Originally briefed by NZSki Ltd that the snow making development and investment was to be staged over five years AAL was able to demonstrate that stronger performance and financial returns could be achieved by completing the development in a single one year stage.

This proposal was accepted by the NZSki Ltd board of directors in October 2007 and the project was commissioned in late May 2008.

To date Coronet Peaks snow making system, Australasia's largest, most technologically advanced and efficient has performed beyond expectation, achieving all objectives despite the warmest and wettest June weather conditions on record.