Stuck on a glacier in the Southern Alps with almost zero visibility, Allan Brent knew he and his friends needed to get to lower ground but he could not do anything to help.
All the signs are pointing to another "golden week" for Wanaka tourism operators as Chinese tourists pack into the town for Chinese New Year celebrations.
A hearing on the changes which would allow shops in the Queenstown Lakes district to open on Easter Sunday has been cancelled after none of the submitters chose to be heard.
Opponents of the decision to treat Lake Hawea township's water supply with chlorine are planning to make their voices heard at a public meeting on Saturday.
A half-day hike near Wanaka which has been described as one of the best in New Zealand has been given a publicity boost after it was included in a list of the top sights in the country.
It is not just Wanaka's tourism businesses benefiting from the influx of visitors at this time of year, the town's recycling centre is busier than ever.
Many overseas visitors to the Upper Clutha in the past week have been caught out by the lack of space at the district's camping grounds, camp ground managers say.
Safety conscious lake users and not so great weather have resulted in an almost incident-free holiday period on the three largest lakes in the Queenstown Lakes district, the harbourmaster says.
Despite some arrests and large numbers of drunken teenagers in Wanaka, police were generally happy with the behaviour of revellers in the Upper Clutha.
In two spectacular Central Otago crashes on the same stretch of highway in little more than an hour, vehicles rolled off the road and end up in adjacent paddocks.