KEY POINTS:
Weather conditions have begun to improve in the snow-stricken southern areas of the South Island.
Extra flights were scheduled in and out of Queenstown after the airport was closed for much of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and the snow had stopped falling.
Air New Zealand spokeswoman Andrea Dale
said an extra flight was scheduled from Christchurch this morning and a further flight out of Queenstown.
"We had two days of backlog to deal with but everything is going to schedule," she said.
"We'll be keeping an eye on things as to whether we'll put any more extra flights on."
Police in Queenstown and Dunedin reported fine weather this morning, with snow thawing in most urban areas.
Most roads closed by snow yesterday had been opened, including State Highway 1 between Milton and Gore and State Highway 6 at Cromwell, but Lewis Pass between Hanmer turnoff and Springs Junction remained closed.
In the North Island, police said snow was falling on the Desert Road last night and were urging motorists to take care. Strong wind warnings were in place for Taihape, Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, Taranaki, Wanganui and Manawatu, with gales predicted at up to 130km/h at times.
Gales around the central North Island were forecast to ease today and tomorrow.
And forecasters thought the wild weather would ease off generally today and tomorrow, with a high spreading over the South Island from Tuesday.
It was undoubtedly small comfort to the 300 homes in the deep south without electricity yesterday. The power went off around 1.30am yesterday as snow felled lines over a large area of Southland.
Efforts are continuing to get the power back on today to about 150 homes in West Otago. They are about half the number blacked out by the heavy snow yesterday.
The rest were reconnected last night.
PowerNet spokesman Roy Duffin hopes all the damage will be repaired by the end of the day. He says big snow drifts are making it difficult for linesmen.
Homes affected were in the West Otago and Eastern Southland areas, including the areas of Tapanui and Kelso.
Tapanui resident Marg Read said their power had been cut off for four hours, from 9am to 1pm, in freezing conditions, and cars were unable to get in or out of the West Otago area.
"We had the log-burner, luckily, and that's great, and I saw the snow this morning and thought we might lose power, so I filled a thermos for a mid-morning coffee."
Read said this was the worst weather in about 11 years, and the tight-knit community would check on elderly residents who rely heavily on electricity. She said most people in the area had food stocks for the winter weather.
Jonathan Gadd of Alexandra said the road into town from where he lived on Bridge Hill had been closed several times. About half the staff at the district council where he works had been unable to get there on Friday.
Today was expected to be the same. "I would have thought it would have pretty much drifted through, but having said that we've just got a pretty good snow shower coming through at the moment," he told the Herald on Sunday yesterday afternoon.
Arrowtown dental nurse Marcia McWhirter had just been to collect her car, which she abandoned on Thursday when she had tried to go home before "the chaos" hit.
"But it was just too icy. Cars were slipping all over the place... it was all on." It had been snowing on and off for several days, and appeared to be "packing up" again. Residents said conditions were the worst in memory, and the temperature at 4pm was 4C.
In Queenstown, which was cut off late last week, people were moving freely around the inner town but finding it much more difficult to go anywhere outside the town.
The Queenstown week-long Winter Festival was to have started on Friday, but the opening had been postponed.
Queenstown's visitor information centre consultant Tetli Carey said bus companies had put on extra services for people moving from one town to the next.
"Everyone is rallying around, and just doing their best, really... some people have been a bit argy-bargy this morning, but they calmed down. There's nothing anyone can do."
Carey said some customers had spent two days travelling from Dunedin to Queenstown, as they were forced to spend a night in Alexandra due to road closures. However, the re-opening of Coronet Peak skifield yesterday morning meant many people had gone skiing for the day.
Skiers and snowboarders can enjoy a 50-centimetre base at the Remarkables and 45 centimetres at Coronet Peak.
Nick Mills, a wine grower for Rippon Vineyard on the edge of Lake Wanaka, said the snow cover over the vineyard was beautiful.
"The vines are hibernating so when the snow comes along it doesn't affect them. The media ... say that everything is really bad down here but for a lot of us it's great. ... people are walking around town today with big smiles on their faces."
Dunedin District Council's Rodney Bryant said roads were cleared in the city, but people were mostly staying indoors - apart from children out making snowmen and "having a great time".
"I can't get out of my house today, so I've cleared the footpath and that's it, you just sit and wait it out."
For those weather-watching by internet, it appeared that for a period yesterday the whole of the South Island was closed for business. The online guide for motorists showed the North Island in green - safe to travel - and the entire South Island in red - the colour signifying 'closed'.
AA Roadwatch director Bashir Khan said there were still roads which were safe to use although motorists were cautioned to be careful due to ice or heavy snow.
- with NZPA, NEWSTALK ZB
