Travellers stranded by violent weather thrashing South Island

Lynn Clayton is stuck in Queenstown after her flight to Auckland was cancelled because of bad weather. Photo / supplied.

Stranded travellers say they're being warned they may be stuck in Queenstown and Dunedin for the weekend after wild weather cancelled flights into and out of the cities today and airlines scramble to clear the backlog.

For some it will mean returning home at the eleventh hour before the start of the school term, for others the wait will mean an extended holiday.

Lynn Clayton is preparing for a potential three-day wait for a flight out of Queenstown after her Air New Zealand flight home to Auckland was cancelled today because of the stormy weather.

A photographer and grandmother, she had been visiting friends and family in Christchurch, Dunedin and Wanaka before driving over the Crown Range to Queenstown for her flight home today.

She described a chaotic scene at Queenstown Airport, where a number of flights were cancelled this afternoon.

"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.