"Queues are from one end of the airport to the other - parents with children, international travellers stranded, roads closed north, airports closed, so nowhere to go.
"One jet aborted three approaches to land in Queenstown this afternoon - crosswinds."
"We have been told it could be two to three days before there are seats available to leave town."
Clayton has booked into a hotel in Queenstown.
"It could be two or three days, there's such a backlog and there are no seats available because it's the end of the school holidays. If they can manage it they will put another flight on tomorrow but they need to have staff and crews available in the right places to do that - they are not sure.
"I could have got a ride to Dunedin with another chap but there were no seats on that flight till tomorrow afternoon and nobody's sure the flight will even be going."
One Herald reader said he left Oamaru at 1.10pm, planning to get to Dunedin Airport well before the 6.05pm flight to Auckland that was to bring him home to his wife and children.
The man said he drove through several flooded areas, arriving at the airport at 3.30pm.
"Just handed over rental car keys with water dripping off my face when [there was an] announcement [the] flight was cancelled . . . gutted."
He said he was even more upset to be told the next available Air New Zealand flight was at 7.30pm on Sunday.
"Scrambled to get accommodation and a Jetstar flight at 9:30am Saturday. Fingers crossed it goes or could be a long stay, by the looks of the weather it will be."
Air New Zealand is looking into a Herald request about when the airline will start flying in and out of Queenstown and Dunedin again.
A spokeswoman for Air New Zealand confirmed flights into and out of Dunedin and Queenstown had been suspended for the night.
The poor weather had also caused disruptions at Timaru and Invercargill airports "with a flow-on effect elsewhere on the network", she said.
