Mt Ruapheu, Turoa Ski Field Review

When shes on shes she's amazing; when shes not shes a cow!

Fantastic day. But Paid online for mountain pass and rental but auto kiosk failed and had to wait for ages until it got sorted at the counter. Didnt save any time haha. Never mind..

I don't like publicly dissing companies but the decision to not provide any free tobogganing and play areas for young families really sucks. Just had an amazing weekend at the mountain but the "free" area is a public walkway and the decision to charge to use the tobogan area is crazy. Pretending that the $20 per supervising adult pet hour is for any other than a monopoly organisation profiteering I believe to be lies (or $59 for the day!). I'm all for companies being able to get a return on investment but theres no lifts/ magic carpets for sled users etc (I accept that the tobogan area was piste bashed) and we were just looking for somewhere to throw a snowball or build a snowman whilst introducing our daughter to the wonders of being up a mountain. There seems to be some pretence that it's for safety reasons but there was no safety supervision either. I look forward to returning with an older child but I don't plan on bringing under 5s back here.

Great ski field on a good day, awesome views. Can get a bit icy.

Best of the 3 on Mt ruapehu if you haven't been to Tukino (3rd ski field on Ruapehu) then it is a must if yr a keen skier.

Great ski field that has a number of lists that take you to some fantastic skiing.

Great day. Staff amazingly helpful and friendly. Light snow but good facilities.

Beautiful forest mountain road and you can see couple of waterfalls.
Other best thing is you can drive up to close to ski area

Large lines but on a good day with good snow, can be epic.
Make sure you are up there early to get a Carpark. On busy weekends the road can close quite early due to no parks.

Plenty of Skiing/snowboarding areas up here, along with walking tracks. Beautiful views, it's great to drive up even if you're not intending to do anything at the top.

Good resort and great facilities. Some idiot took my skis but this is not the resorts fault.

Good for moderate ski / snowboarders. Waste of time if you are trying g to learn here, recommend whakapapa for that.

weather couldve been better but.... not much they can do about that

Overall: Thoroughly recommended, but the lifts will put you off wanting to spend a second day (see below)

The Good: Incredible varied runs with some being truly spectacular wide and sweeping. Probably best in New Zealand.

The Bad: The lifts are awful. There is only one "latch-on/latch-off" lift which only serves the highest third of the mountain (and was closed the day I went because winds on the upper mountain were 30km/h). All other lifts are the traditional slow type that become dreadfully uncomfortable (not padding like other NZ fields) if spending several hours on the mountain.

Found on the mighty Mt Ruapehu in the central North Island. Turoa provides a fun skiing experience, with some nice runs for skiers and boarders of all abilities. However, even though there was heaps of snow, unfortunately, due to poor management, the top section of the mountain was closed. It is also an extremely expensive activity, probably because of a lack of competition. Fun though.

Great little slopes, very basic if you been skiing in Europe or the rest of the world, but great for being 4Hours from AKL, perfect little getaway and play in the snow. Bit crazy expensive lift passes but if you want to go often, get a season pass early

Wonderful views and efficient Carpark team. Great burgers at the Snowflake Cafe. But avoid the aligned R.A.L park and ride shuttle services from the local towns at all costs, never arrived on 2 occasions, had to drive a 70km round trip to catch a replacement, only to be told the only way up the ski field was for us to drive ourselves.

Really liked the facilities and quality of routes. Food and beer heavily overpriced though (chips for $8 and 330ml panhead beer can for 11)

Lady in car park was good to help us find a park but the layout for pricing and navigation was horrible and when we finally found reception the lady was not helpful at all and we ended up leaving

Awesome days skiing on the Wednesday but white out Thursday.

Can be great skiing depending on weather and season and how much effort the operator puts into opening and grooming runs, 2018 can demonstrated how good it can get if the operator puts their mind to it. Facilities are very basic and food is expensive. Turoa gets the sun later than Whakapapa so the snow stays fresh longer into the day.

Someone stole our gear and reported it. Manager said CCTV is not working in the board racks.

I love how my bank balance drops
It's so great to be relieved of my cash

Great day skiing good atmosphere and quick access to the rides. Food at the mountain is really expensive so take your own. Line to the rental was insanely slow spent half the day in line to get fitted.

OK very weather dependent - on a good day and good snow, absolutely brilliant. But the downside is everyone goes there so the traffic can be terrible - sometimes so bad they have to close the road. Grooming of tracks seems to have deteriorated over the years (pinching pennies?). On bad days, can be very windy and icy trails. Cafes are pretty good, though the Giant Cafe could do with an upgrade

Great skiing and lifts. Be sure to take your own lunch unless you dont mind being bankrupt when you leave.

Great place it's a shame that RAL (Raupehu Apline Lifts) only invests in Whakapapa

Love Turoa side of the mountain. So much so. My family has a house there.

Family friendly, lots of options for all abilities.

So overcrowded you actually couldn't ski.
The line for the very first lift to even get up the mountain was backed up past the cafe and almost to the ticketing area. It took well over an hour just to get to the lift.
They really need to limit the number of people if it gets like this

Good ski field. Easy to get to with great facilities.

Nice mountian bit dissapointed didnt go up mt or use sled pass we paid for and didnt get a refund

All the natural half pipes make this my favorite in the North island, but you won't like it so go to Whakapapa.

Just don't go here in the weekend and you'll have a blast.....

Great place to ski and have fun with family/friends

Turoa has a nice variety of runs that suit the intermediate skier well and there's a fair amount of terrain that can be accessed even with the 6 seater lift out of action.

Unfortunately the ridiculous queues on the weekend make it questionable whether it's worth a trip there. The food options are poor and overpriced. RAL need to take a good look these issues as currently it probably makes more sense for those with access to cheap air fares to travel to the South Island to ski.

My preferred side of Ruapehu for snowboarding. Entrance to the road up to the mountain is in Ohakune. You can buy lift tickets and hire gear here but that can also be done in Ohakune town center. There are three cafes on the mountain. The one at the base is the nicest.
There are quite a few lifts to take you up the mountain. The beginners area is at the base and up Parklane Chair, while the more advanced lift is the Movenpick, which leads to the Giant, Nga Wai Heke and the High Noon Express, the highest lift on Turoa.
Nice place to spend a day or two.
The high noon express was broken by an avalanche so it isn't running this season. No acces to the upper mountain past Giant lifts unless you walk up.

Great day with great staff who looked after us well. Parking was great too!

Visited Turoa in Summer so everything at was closed however it is still a nice location to visit at this time of the year. Went cycling from Ohakune to the top of Turoa (following Ohakune mountain road). It's a very scenic road although it gets quite steep near the top. The views from the top on a clear day are fantastic and well worth a day trip even in Summer as it is certainly not as busy as in the middle of winter.

The never end snow mountain. Skiing, chair lifting, snow boarding and playing the snow all u want to do here. And a warm hot chocolate drink at the end is just amazing.

It's good skifeild maybe more for intermediate and up and can be a bit icy or slushy. Some good jumps and nice runs

Great ski field with plenty of amenities. Can get quite busy during weekends and school holidays

Very good ski field. Great lessons for beginners and slopes to suit all skill levels. Take the shuttle from Ohakune rather than self drive. It only takes 20 minutes and is a lot safer if the weather turns nasty. The staff are friendly and ski chair lifts pretty good. Cafe at the base is reasonable. The cafe higher up is very basic.

It was great to drive up and see the snow and resort, however, there was only one trail open due to poor weather and everyone was using it. The snow was more of an ice track due to overuse and it was really dangerous.

We had paid for lessons and couldn't find the correct area to go to. One staff member told us that we had to go to the top of the beginners lift. Then once up there we were told lessons were down the bottom and the only way down was to ski. Unfortunately this lead to a concussion and ended our ski day abruptly. We found that the lessons area didn't have adequate signage.

I'd recommend going in more permitting weather.

Beautiful views. Friendly staff. So busy on the weekends. Ski lessons were really great and helpful for first learners. Nice cafes.

4 out of 5 mid week ski days with good upper mountain ski conditions. Great time had by our family of 5.

$125 for a day pass, what a joke! Ridiculous how many people that they let on the mountain at the same time. Ridiculous lines, and completely dangerous on the limited runs they have, squeezing too many people into tight spaces. Almost impossible to not run into people in lots of areas. Head to the South Island fields if you want good skiing. Don't even get me started on their food prices, make sure to take your own food.

Nice little town....
Some decent bars and cool equipment hire for the snow

Amazing on a sunny day. Snow fun and ave expensive food!

Great atmosphere calm environment and...SNOW...what's not to love!!

There is never much snow. Facilities are lousy. Prices extortionate. Only good thing is the views.

Truly beautiful place. I prefer this place to Whakapapa which is always overly crowded any day. Getting up there can be a bit questionable if the weather is bad but you can always take a SHUTTLE. 4WD vehicles shouldn't have a problem. Gets very crowded during the holidays..

First time seeing snow. Best experience EVER!!!!!!!