From fog, to frost, snow and then sun, Wakatipu residents appear to have had four completely different weather patterns in four days.
About 1000 passengers at Queenstown Airport were affected by the eerie fog in the area on Saturday, which refused to budge.
Several residents who were planning on travelling by helicopter to Dunedin for the All Blacks test match at Carisbrook ended up driving, with the fog making conditions too dangerous for flying.
Queenstown Airport manager Chris Read said no flights landed or left the airport on Saturday as a result of the fog - understood to have been compressed into the valley and unable to rise and escape because of high air pressure above.
Mr Read said six flights due to leave Queenstown were grounded and a further six flights trying to land were either diverted or cancelled.
"We had no flights in or out all day. But they [the passengers] all got to their destinations.
"The ones that couldn't get in went to Invercargill. Some that didn't divert to Invercargill stayed in Christchurch and passengers were bused to Queenstown."
Other passengers who were unable to leave Queenstown also went by bus to either Invercargill or Christchurch, Mr Read said.
A heavy frost set in early on Sunday, resulting in a clear Monday morning, made even cooler by a chilly breeze.
Yesterday morning, residents around the Wakatipu woke to snow, which caused Queenstown Airport to temporarily close its runway because of ice.
A combination of "running our brooms up and down" and the sunshine brought an end to the closure by 10.30am, with one flight delayed in the interim, he said.
The Remarkables Ski Area manager, Ross Lawrence, said the skifield - which opens this Saturday - had never looked better before a season opening.
Early this week, the mountain received about 10cm of snow, leaving it with a base of 75cm across the whole mountain.
"We are very excited . . . We're staying very cold and more snow is scheduled to come through [today]. For the first time in a long time we'll have Shadow Bain chairlift open on day one. Usually, that's a week or two behind the rest of the mountain."
By midmorning yesterday, the sun was shining brilliantly.
