Snow flurries fell in Mamaku today as the Antarctic blast sweeping up the country reached Bay of Plenty.
Power was also cut to hundreds of customers in the Mamaku and Hamurana area.
Mamaku School principal Garry Veysi said there was a snow flurry on the school grounds at around 11.30am.
Excited students were released from class to play in the snow, he said.
"We had a bit of a flurry, there isn't snow on the ground or anything like that. It was quite exciting.
"It is definitely colder, but the kids are still outside playing handball so it can't be that cold."
Power remained on at the school.
According to Unison, 382 customers lost power in the Mamaku, Hamurana and Ngatira area just after midday. Crews found a line down and repaired it, restoring power mid-afternoon.
Unison spokesman Danny Gough said 83 customers had their power restored not long after the intital outage but he could not confirm the cause of the outage.
A Waikite Valley Thermal Pools staff member also confirmed sleet had fallen in the Waikite area.
Waikite Valley School deputy principal Lisa Dinning said sleet fell at around 11am, but there was no snowfall on school grounds.
Students remained inside during their breaks today as it was "absolutely freezing" and quite windy, she said.
Power remained on at the school.
An Antarctic blast is sweeping up the country bringing freezing temperatures, dumping snow and grounding Air New Zealand flights.
Snow has also been falling in Wellington and Taranaki this morning and the Desert Rd remains closed, made impassable by the stormy weather. Snow has also started falling on the Napier-Taupo highway.
More to come.
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