A fully-laden tourist bus, an Australian tourist and a New Zealand driver were unwitting victims when two families of Australian tourists caused minor traffic chaos, crashing and causing road hazards as they tried to navigate heavy snow on the Te Anau-Milford highway.
Southland and South Otago farmers struggling from a week of snow on lowland farms in the middle of lambing are to be offered taxpayer-funded assistance.
The stormy spring weather that has pummelled much of New Zealand over the last week is starting to abate and most of the North Island should be back to full power later today.
The Southern Steel has made a tentative booking to play all its home fixtures in Dunedin next year after a heavy snowfall caused part of the roof of Invercargill's Stadium Southland to collapse on Saturday.
Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium is being built to withstand a one-in-500-year snowfall, says Dunedin Venues operations director Darren Burden.
The weekend's unseasonal icy blast that caused the collapse of Stadium Southland in Invercargill and wreaked havoc across Southland has also hit some Otago orchardists and farmers hard.
A military exercise in Dunedin ended prematurely for some personnel after heavy snow at Swampy Summit prevented them from continuing on Saturday.
The snow which hampered traffic and closed schools in the Queenstown area today is easing to showers, and most road snow warnings are expected to be lifted in the next few hours, the MetService says.
Snow fell heavily in Queenstown this morning closing the schools and causing chaos for motorists.
The fresh 30cm snowfall across Cardrona Alpine Resort could not have come at a better time for the skifield's season opening tomorrow.
Snow had closed numerous roads around the southern region earlier this morning but the New Zealand Transport Agency website has moderated some closures to restrictions.
Forecast snow to lake level in Queenstown did not eventuate yesterday. Instead, rain fell in the resort town. However, two-thirds of the flanks of the Remarkables were snow-covered and both Queenstown skifields had a good fall of snow yesterday.
