At first glance, Auckland’s North Shore doesn’t look like prime ski territory. For even a casual observer, there are a number of clues. There’s the conspicuous absence of mountains. There’s no snow whatsoever. There’s the prevalence of sub-tropical flowers and palm trees. While Auckland’s North Shore has a certain charm—rolling hills, lush vegetation—to skiers, it’s a vast wasteland.

Only, it’s not. Since March 5, 2005, the North Shore has been home to Snow Planet, New Zealand’s first, biggest (and only) indoor ski slope. It’s a snowdome… without the dome (check out their website at www.snowplanet.co.nz).

Snow Planet differs from most other snowdomes in that the hill itself was already there. No need to create one or appropriate a slagheap or a garbage pile; Snow Planet is built onto what was a hillside cow paddock, and it follows the natural slope of the land. Outside, the cows still graze.

Snow Planet is technically not a “dome” (e.g. curved roof of some sort) and was less expensive to build as a result. “We strived to use commodity-style building materials that enabled simple construction methodologies,” says Eduard Ebbinge, 36, a Dutch investment banker and avid skier who has lived in New Zealand since 1995. “Elsewhere, planning/architectural requirements by local authorities require snowdome operators to build using curved roofs. These are, however, more expensive to build. I am confident that, in terms of build cost per square meter, we are by far the most efficiently built snowdome in the world, at a cost approximately 40 percent lower than comparable facilities in Europe (that is, built on firm ground, such as a hillside). Because of the hill, you don’t need a physical floor and you use a lot less steel. Domes built on steel poles are significantly more expensive to build.” All said and done, this project cost $10 million.

How did Ebbinge think to build a snowdome in an Auckland suburb? Skidomes have become big biz back in Holland, his homeland, where there are seven operating now. One of the Dutch domes is twice as wide and twice as long as Snow Planet’s 660 by 135 feet. Ebbinge says, “I came to the view that this would work in the Auckland market.” So, with a partner, Alistair Yates, he “bought a bit of dirt, built a relationship with a Dutch operator who gave us technical advice, navigated the zoning laws, raised capital, and after 18 months of building, here we are. It’s been good fun.”

The result of all this fun is a white structure that snakes down the hillside, looking like a squared-off huhu grub inching over the landscape. Inside, there’s a ski shop, a rather nice restaurant with an unobstructed view of the slope, a full snow school, two platter lifts and one conveyor lift for beginners. The slope is solidly intermediate (30 percent grade at its steepest) most of the way down, turning to beginner (9 percent) near the bottom. It’s punctuated by jumps, bumps, kickers, a c-rail and a flat-down rail, and a fun box. You can negotiate all this on ski and snowboard, toboggan and Airboard.

The 20-inch-deep snow is packed powder, very consistent and a bit grainy. The snow is entirely cleaned out once a year and replaced with new snow and throughout the year; snow is blown a couple of times a week. The rate of production is almost 16 gallons per minute. To groom the surface, Snow Planet uses a PistenBully PB100 with diesel filter to keep the snow clean. The end result makes for easy learning conditions and a solid base for practicing moves. The temperature is a pleasant 24 degrees F, and Snow Planet is open 365 days a year, from morning until nearly midnight.

And how much does it cost to run one of these babies? Approximately $2.5 million per year. The slope charges users $20 per hour and $35 for two hours to offset these costs, and also practices a lot of yield management, like two-for-one deals and a second hour free during slower times.

For its first year of operation, Snow Planet needed 90,000 visits to break even—they ended up hosting 165,000. Helping to boost those numbers were terrain park competitions and school programs and contests. “It’s a year of trying a lot of things,” says Ebbinge. They also rent clothing and gear on premises.

In some ways, the dome experience is more like the airline biz than skiing. “Airlines have the same capacity problem as we’ve got—because there’s only a certain number of seats for sale, their use has to maximized.” To address this, Snow Planet aims to turn people around quickly—the slope is designed for an hour-and-half experience. “We don’t want them to stay longer,” says Ebbinge. “We’re a convenience product. We don’t set ourselves against the mountains. We don’t strive to produce the unique experience that they provide. It’s simply a fun, social, ready-to-eat snow experience.”