A raft of weather watches and warnings are in force across New Zealand.
Snow is expected to fall to sea level in the deep south, and thunderstorms, heavy rain and potentially damaging winds are set to pummel western regions of both islands.
Snow is expected to keep falling in alpine regions; the Milford Rd is expected to get more than half a metre near the tunnel.
Weatherwatch says a deep storm in the Southern Ocean will bring at least another four days of unstable weather to all parts of New Zealand and severe weather may linger until the middle of next week.
"There are many moving parts to this storm, and while not everyone is impacted by bad weather those in the west, central areas and the deep south are exposed to it from time to time until the middle of next week," the forecaster said.
There are road snow warnings in place in the South, including for Dunedin's Northern Motorway, the Lindis Pass and the Crown Range Road.
Wanaka and Lake Hawea residents woke to surrounding ridgelines blanketed in snow after a storm whipped through overnight.
The morning started with an inversion layer across the district that lifted around 11am revealing the snow-covered tops.
Treble Cone skifield is estimated to have received upward of 63cm of fresh snow, and Cardrona Alpine Resort around 31cm over the past 48 hours.
Cardrona said on social media that an announcement would be made later today.
Elsewhere, motorists using the Auckland Harbour Bridge were put on notice that lanes could close due to high winds, and electrical storms laced with hail larger than grapes battered the West Coast, while a second wave of rough weather was set to blast up from the south this afternoon.
The region remains under a heavy swell warning until midnight Saturday.
Wellington Region Emergency Management Office is warning the big seas are likely to wash up debris on coastal roads and cause flooding. People are urged to stay away from the coast.
Niwa's modelling shows a line of showers and thunderstorms with potentially damaging 120km/h wind gusts moving from the west of the South Island to the lower North Island by later tonight.
The forecaster is warning the thunderstorms could spark torrential rain, hail and tornadoes.
A severe thunderstorm watch was issued at lunchtime for the entire West Coast of the South Island until midnight.
19,397 lighting strikes in 24 hours
MetService revealed since 8am yesterday there had been nearly 20,000 lightning strikes in 24 hours, mainly affecting western regions of both islands.
The storm caused significant disruption this morning with a lightning strike hitting two Transpower circuits and cutting power to the entire Buller district.
Buller Electricity told customers Transpower had advised it had a lightning strike to both circuits but expected to get power back on around noon.
Virtually the entire South Island is now cloaked in weather warnings.
Residents in Castle Hill in the Canterbury high country were cut off overnight because of snow.
Today, the Milford Road (SH94) is closed and is expected to be affected by bad weather across the weekend. Convoys were planned to allow some traffic in and out of the township today.
- additional reporting Aspen Bruce
