Mt Ruapehu launches its online car park booking system tomorrow to alleviate lengthy queues at the busiest times of the ski season.

The new booking system is free this season and will operate for the busiest 10 of the 17 weekends that the mountain is open in winter.

RAL CEO Jono Dean says, “We’ve listened to the frustrations about queuing for parking and general volumes of visitors to the ski areas and we’ve come up with what we believe is a good solution that will ensure fair and equitable parking for everyone.”

The booking system means that visitors can book a car park in advance instead of driving up the mountain, waiting in queues and often being turned around at the last minute.

“Mountain visitors will appreciate this new system after they try it and experience the benefits – especially after hearing the reported dawn dashes recently to get a car park for the southern ski fields as well as long queues. We don’t want people driving in often icy conditions and rushing just to get a carpark,” Jono says.

Carparks can be booked online at www.mtruapehu.com the Wednesday prior to the weekend of travel, and will show live availability so people can easily see when is the best time to visit.

Those who ‘no show’ when they’ve booked will be sent an alert to say they are late and if they don’t arrive as per their updated ETA the car park will be released back into the availability pool.

Jono is hoping that the booking system will also encourage visitors to plan their trip in advance and avoid busy times, like weekends. “While weekends will always be busy, skiers need to consider going up the mountain mid-week to avoid crowds and queues.

“We’re also asking people to be considerate and only book a carpark if they intend using it and to cancel it if they decide not to use it. The system won’t allow bookings at both Turoa and Whakapapa on the same day, or for multiple arrival times on the same day.”

The car park booking system is an integral part of managing traffic congestion on the mountain and to ensure a sustainable level of visitation can be managed.

“If visitors don’t want to drive using a local shuttle service is another option, there are plenty of pick up points from local towns around the region,” Jono says.

Before heading up the mountain visitors are advised to check the Mt Ruapehu website for the latest updates, snowcams, weather conditions and to book a carpark. Further information about the new car parking booking system, including extensive Q and A’s, is also on the website www.mtruapehu.com.

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