Tourists spend night in mountains after weather grounds chopper

Four tourists spent spent last night stranded on the Lammerlaw Ranges in Central Otago after worsening weather forced the chopper in which they were travelling to land.

The tourists, from South Africa and Japan, told One Network News they had wanted to catch international flights out of Queenstown yesterday but the airport was closed, so they hired a chopper to fly them to Dunedin Airport, which was open.

The helicopter was forced to land in the Lammerlaw Ranges after it was deemeds too dangerous to continue flying.

The tourists and their pilot spent the night in the chopper, and were picked up by the Otago Rescue Helicopter this morning.

They are are currently making their way home.  

Meanwhile, New Zealand started to get back to normal today after the Antarctic blast which brought the first snow in decades to much of the country, closing roads, airports and schools, and leaving hundreds without power.

All North Island state highways were open after the Desert Road reopened this morning followed by the Rimutaka Hill road between Wellington and the Wairarapa this afternoon.

The Lewis, Arthurs and Porter mountain passes remain closed in the South Island.

Queenstown, Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington airports were all open and most schools were expected to reopen tomorrow.

Bluebridge and Interislander ferry passenger services would resume normal sailing times tomorrow, after both cancelled sailings today due to swells in the Cook Strait.

WeatherWatch.co.nz head analyst Philip Duncan said the wintry blast was starting to ease but snow flurries were still hitting parts of Canterbury and the wettest and coldest parts were in the North Island's east coast.

The freezing level was rising, so snow would fall only in higher country.

However, tomorrow morning would be extremely cold and minus 10degC was possible in the Central Otago basin.

"Many areas are still facing bitterly cold winds, sleet rain and even snow to sea level -- but many others are seeing the sun."

Mr Duncan said the centre of the low pressure weather system was now 2500km southeast of Christchurch and moving away from New Zealand.

"The main event has well and truly passed now, but we're still being affected by the tail end, so more heavy snow down to a few hundred metres from Canterbury to Hawke's Bay and wintry, sleety, conditions to sea level."

St John regional operations manager for the South Island Chris Haines said the ambulance service was operating at usual levels today.

Christchurch lines company Orion this morning said power was out for 60 customers in Christchurch and central Canterbury - about 40 in parts of rural Leeston, Tai Tapu and Dunsandel, and fewer than 20 individual customers in the city.

North Island lines company Powerco said high winds and snow caused trees and branches to tear down overhead lines, cutting power to more than 37,000 customers since Sunday.

Supply was cut to about 500 customers in Hunterville and Tararua overnight due to the severe weather, and a further 4200 in Wanganui this morning. A car which crashed into a power pole in Wanganui cut power to 10 properties last night.

There were currently about 250 properties without supply spread across Manawatu, Taranaki and Wanganui. The majority of affected customers were expected to have supply restored by the end of today, although a small number may be without power where access was difficult or damage extensive.

 

 

 

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