Two tourists had a lucky escape after their rental car slid more than 200m down a ski trail at the Cardrona Alpine Resort yesterday afternoon.
Otago Daily Times Alexandra reporter Leith Huffadine was skiing nearby and said while he did not see the car on the move, he saw resort staff helping two Asian tourists out of the vehicle at the bottom of the All Nations run, near the White Star lift.
Mr Huffadine said the red, late-model, Apex rental car was on its side and left a trail at least 200m long from the car park used by season pass holders.
Cromwell resident Steve Farquharson said the occupants were lucky.
''I'd say they were very lucky because imagine if it was hard, icy snow. It could have just kept going.''
Cardrona general manager Bridget Legnavsky said she was investigating how the incident occurred.
''No-one was hurt, no-one was in the way. We were lucky.''
She understood the car slid backwards down the mountain, in snowboard ''switch'' fashion.
Ms Legnavsky said she had not spoken to the occupants herself but understood the driver, who received a minor injury, hit the accelerator instead of the brake when parking.
The car had pushed over a pole to get on to the slope.
''It was just one of those interesting things we had never seen happen before.''
Mr Huffadine said quite a large crowd watched the car being recovered.
It appeared to have some minor damage but was driven away after a groomer towed it back to the car park.
Apex Car Rentals in Queenstown and Christchurch were unaware of the incident late yesterday afternoon.
