The plans of more than 1650 people scheduled to travel through Queenstown Airport were disrupted when 20 flights were cancelled after snow and ice prevented flights in or out of the airport until 3pm on Saturday.
Despite the disruptions to travel, Queenstown airport duty manager Naoto Unno said the airport was "amazingly quiet" and passengers were calm on Saturday morning.
"Most people realised there was nothing they could do," he said.
"I think people understand when we've got these conditions."
Most of the passengers had been re-booked from Sunday onwards on extra flights scheduled by Air New Zealand and Qantas.
In Queenstown's Goldfields Heights, a bus crash left 20 Korean tourists trapped for about 45 minutes when it became stuck against a bank about 11.30am on Saturday, and the Arrowtown Fire Brigade was called to an early morning crash when two cars collided at the Morven Ferry Rd corner at 6.21am on Saturday.
Cars without chains were stuck in snow or slid on roads around Arrowtown, which were covered with about 30cm of snow by mid-morning.
Snowploughs and grit trucks were out early, clearing access for traffic in the Arrowtown and wider Wakatipu area.
Most roads were usable without chains by early afternoon.
The snowstorm forced the closure of Coronet Peak on Saturday.
The driver of a tourist bus which slid on a steep hill in snow in Queenstown on Saturday prevented what could have been a much worse accident, a witness said.
The slide happened about 11.30am after a night of heavy snow, on a steep hill coming into Queenstown from Goldfield Heights.
Witness Phil Hamlin, of Queenstown, was driving in front of the bus and, in his rear-view mirror, saw it get into trouble. Bus driver William Bell managed to wedge the bus against a rock wall, stopping the vehicle's slide.
About 20 Korean tourists were trapped inside the bus for at least 30 minutes before a door was prised open, he said.
If the driver had been unable to stop the bus, he may not have made a corner at the bottom of the hill.
Constable Terry Wood said there were several minor nose-to-tail accidents in the icy conditions.
