Mount Hutt ( mi, Opuke) rises to the west of the

Canterbury Plains The Canterbury Plains () are an area in New Zealand centred in the Mid Canterbury, to the south of the city of Christchurch in the Canterbury region. Their northern extremes are at the foot of the Hundalee Hills in the Hurunui District, and in t ...

in the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

of New Zealand, above the braided upper reaches of the

Rakaia River The Rakaia River is in the Canterbury Plains in New Zealand's South Island. The Rakaia River is one of the largest braided rivers in New Zealand. The Rakaia River has a mean flow of and a mean annual seven-day low flow of . In the 1850s, Euro ...

, and 80 kilometres west of

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

. Its summit is 2190 metres above sea level. The New Zealand

Ministry for Culture and Heritage The Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH; ) is the department of the New Zealand Government responsible for supporting the arts, culture, built heritage, sport and recreation, and broadcasting sectors in New Zealand and advising government on ...

gives a translation of "place of the hill" for ''Ōpuke''.

Ski field

The mountain is home to a commercial alpine

ski area A ski area is the terrain and supporting infrastructure where skiing and other snow sports take place. Such sports include alpine and cross-country skiing, snow boarding, tubing, sledding, etc. Ski areas may stand alone or be part of a ski resort. ...

offering 3.65 square kilometres of skiable terrain and a vertical of 683 metres. The ski field is owned and operated by

NZSki NZSki Ltd, or nzski.com'manages three major New Zealand commercial ski fields; two in Queenstown, The Remarkables, New Zealand, The Remarkables and Coronet Peak, and Mt. Hutt nearer to Christchurch. The company is based in Queenstown. It was for ...

It caters for a wide range of skier and snowboarder abilities, with two surface/conveyor lifts, a high-speed six seater chairlift, a high-speed eight seater chairlift and a fixed-grip three seater chairlift. The lift infrastructure provides access to a wide range of beginner, intermediate and advanced runs, access to large off-piste areas and several terrain parks. The most advanced runs on the mountain are through the rock formations at the top of the field known as "The Towers", and the South Face. The snow season is from June to October. Mount Hutt prides itself on being the first ski field in the Southern Hemisphere to open at the beginning of each season. On 12 August 2010, winds of up to 200 km/h struck the ski area, resulting in its closure along with the access road, and stranding 1200 people on the mountain overnight, where they were accommodated in the ski-field's base buildings. The road was reopened the following day. Since there is no accommodation on the mountain, most visitors stay in the nearby town of Methven, a 35-minute drive to the mountain. The larger town of Ashburton is 55 minutes away. The city of

is one hour 45 minutes drive away. Mt Hutt is managed by

along with

Coronet Peak Coronet Peak is a commercial skifield in Queenstown, New Zealand located seven kilometres west of Arrowtown, on the southern slopes of the 1,649-metre peak which shares its name. A popular ski resort in the Southern Hemisphere, Coronet Peak offe ...

and

The Remarkables The Remarkables ( mi, Kawarau) are a mountain range and skifield in Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. Located on the southeastern shore of Lake Wakatipu, the range lives up to its name by rising sharply to create a remarkable backdrop ...

in Queenstown. Mount Hutt was named by the

Canterbury Association The Canterbury Association was formed in 1848 in England by members of parliament, peers, and Anglican church leaders, to establish a colony in New Zealand. The settlement was to be called Canterbury, with its capital to be known as Christchurch. ...

surveyor Joseph Thomas for

John Hutt John Hutt (24 July 1795 – 9 April 1880) was Governor of Western Australia from 1839 to 1846. Life Born in London on 24 July 1795, John Hutt was the fourth of 13 children of Richard Hutt of Appley Towers, Ryde, Isle of Wight. He was educated ...

, an early member of the Association. In 2020, the Zionist Federation of New Zealand lobbied the ski-field to remove a commemorative plaque to one of its founders, Willi Huber, a former member of the

Waffen-SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...

. The Federation also lobbied for the renaming of a ski trail and alpine restaurant that were named after Huber.

have renamed the ski trail and restaurant.

Fauna

During the summer months four species of Alpine grasshoppers can be found within the ski field boundary. They include ''

Sigaus villosus ''Sigaus villosus'' is New Zealand's largest grasshopper. It is only found in the central mountains of the South Island. The genus ''Sigaus'' is endemic to the New Zealand. Like all of New Zealand sub-alpine and alpine grasshoppers ''S. villosus ...

'' which can be found along the ridgelines, ''Brachaspis nivalis'' which lives on the rocky

scree Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. Talus deposits typically ha ...

, ''

Sigaus australis ''Sigaus australis'' is the most common alpine grasshopper found in New Zealand. It can be found in the southern half of the South Island above the tree line. ''Sigaus australis'' was described in 1897 by Frederick Hutton. Like all of New Zeala ...

'' and ''Paprides nitidus'' which both live in the alpine tussocklands.

Gallery

File:Mt Hutt3.jpg, Mt Hutt ski centre File:Mt Hutt6.jpg, Top of Summit Six chairlift File:Mt Hutt, NZ1.jpg, Base of ski area File:Chairlift Mt Hutt, NZ.jpg, Chairlift over Mount Hutt File:Mt Hutt4.jpg, Access road to Mount Hutt File:Southern Alps from Mt Hutt, NZ2.jpg, Southern Alps from summit File:Mt Hutt pano Stevage.jpg, Ski area from base

References

External links

The Mt Hutt ski area website

The nzski.com website

0800Snow Review on Mt HuttMt Hutt Webcams and Weather Report

{{Ashburton District, New Zealand Hutt Hutt