Big Chill destined to be unforgettable

Bill Preston and dog Jade brave the big snow. Picture/ Sheila Preston

Sheila Preston remembers it being an eerie feeling when she took this photograph of her husband, Bill, trudging through Canterbury's big snow with dog Jade hot on his heels.

"It was quite creepy really, because everything was so quiet and still. We're used to it always being busy with tourists here," she says of the Lake Tekapo village hit by about 40cm of snow in the big June 12 storm.

"We have had big snowfalls here before but we have never seen as much devastation, with all the trees coming down. It sounded like gunshots being fired."

Mrs Preston's photograph is one of 144 that tell the story of the storm that paralysed Canterbury, leaving thousands stranded for days without power or communications.

The photographs are compiled in The Big Chill, by Timaru bookstore owner Jeff Grigor, which will officially be launched in Timaru tomorrow. Mr Grigor knew when he woke on June 12 that the storm would be an unforgettable one, worthy of a book.

He placed advertisements in Canterbury newspapers asking for people's photographs of the snow. More than 5000 images were sent to him and he had the daunting task of narrowing them down to 144.

"There were a lot of worthy images that missed out. We wanted to have different themes running through the book, and we wanted to keep a geographic spread."

Penguin Books came on board and within four weeks of Mr Grigor placing his first newspaper advertisement the book was put together - the fastest in Penguin's history.

Mr Grigor sees the book as a celebration of the heroes of the storm as much as a lasting memory of the event.

The snow has almost cleared now at Lake Tekapo but the thaw took up to six weeks.

The Prestons considered themselves lucky having lost power and use of the phone for only a day or so when many Cantabrians went without for more than two weeks.


The freeze

* Temperature plummeted to -14C at Tara Hills near Omarama and Fairlie, the lowest or equal lowest ever recorded in June.

* South Canterbury and North Otago shivered with -10C on nine days between June 14 and 29.

* Snow depths reached 90cm at Fairlie and Burke Pass on June 11-12.