The Wanaka stopover was not part of the prince's official New Zealand itinerary, so exactly what he got up to instead during his stay in the resort remains a closely-guarded secret.
Pouring rain greeted the prince at Wanaka Airport shortly after noon as he arrived on a military helicopter from Stewart Island.
Just a smattering of people - mostly airport staff, police and security officers - gathered in front of the airport's terminal building to see the prince, who escaped to Wanaka for some private time before further public engagements in Christchurch today.
He disembarked from the helicopter and walked quickly to a waiting black Toyota vehicle, which whisked him straight from the tarmac and out the airport gates.
Police stopped traffic on State Highway 6 on either side of the airport to let the royal convoy of vehicles pass.
The convoy drove to Riverrun luxury lodge, in Halliday Rd, where more police officers patrolled the grounds.
Adventure Wanaka operator Davy Pattison confirmed he had received a booking about 10 days ago by the Department of Internal Affairs to take Prince Harry and seven others on a three-hour fishing trip on Lake Wanaka at 2pm.
''We were sitting there with the boat ready and sniffer dogs had been through and police had been through, the whole nine yards. The boat was out of the water while they looked underneath.''
Shortly before the scheduled departure time, the trip was called off by the prince's staff because of the weather, Mr Pattison said.
''At that stage it was windy and raining ... it was pretty foul.''
Mr Pattison was ''disappointed'' to have missed his opportunity to meet a ''real prince''.
A suggestion the prince may have been going to Oxbow adventure park, near Wanaka Airport, was dismissed by general manager David Richmond.
A Puzzling World staff member said he had not visited.
The prince is understood to have stayed overnight in Wanaka.
The two helicopters in which he and his entourage arrived were not scheduled to leave until this morning.
