The company said the congestion affected private vehicles and commercial operators alike, with shuttle services caught in the same queues as motorists heading up the mountain.<\/p>\n
Visitors who had not planned ahead often waited in Whakapapa Village hoping the road would reopen, while others drove back towards Waimarino in search of last-minute shuttle bookings.<\/p>\n
By then, the company\u2019s \u201ccarefully planned\u201d schedules had \u201cdisappeared out the window\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe spend more time sitting in traffic than transporting people, while fielding constant phone calls from people wanting a cheaper option or demanding a shuttle \u2018right now\u2019 instead of waiting for the next available departure.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor smaller operators like us, this is incredibly difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur capacity isn\u2019t limited by how many people we can take up the mountain \u2013 it\u2019s limited by how many seats we must have available to bring people safely back down later in the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traffic backs up along State Highway 48 as thousands of visitors head to Mt Ruapehu’s Whakapapa Ski Area. Photo \/ Ruapehu Scenic Shuttles<\/p>\n
According to the company, one group that had been unable to reach the ski field on Saturday boarded an almost-empty 1pm shuttle travelling uphill to collect pre-booked passengers.<\/p>\n
Heavy traffic delayed the journey by about 30 minutes but the group still expected the company\u2019s scheduled 4pm return to be pushed back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is they hadn\u2019t planned ahead \u2013 they simply turned up hoping for the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruapehu Scenic Shuttles said the current season was shaping up to be among the busiest it had experienced.<\/p>\n
It said the congestion was tough on drivers and vehicles while making it \u201cincreasingly difficult to provide the reliable and flexible service we pride ourselves on\u201d.<\/p>\n
Visitors were urged to book early, arrive prepared and expect delays if travelling during the late morning hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlanning ahead won\u2019t solve the traffic \u2013 but it will make your day on the mountain a whole lot less stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The company said the congestion affected private vehicles and commercial operators alike, with shuttle services caught in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3471,12635,274360,97846,9183,274362,40090,19345,42,6559,10048,43,1118,44355,8244,1314,51972,274361,2687,131763,25290,157478,2742,61,40,38,41,39,3946,112,8218,27084,102,8598],"class_list":["post-557590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-among","tag-area","tag-clogging","tag-congestion","tag-eager","tag-encountered","tag-enthusiasts","tag-field","tag-headlines","tag-heavy","tag-mt","tag-news","tag-of","tag-operator","tag-recent","tag-road","tag-ruapehu","tag-ruapehus","tag-saying","tag-shuttle","tag-ski","tag-slope","tag-thousands","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-traffic","tag-transport","tag-warns","tag-whakapapa","tag-with","tag-worst"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}