If you have to be stranded anywhere, I can recommend the Oak Tree Inn in Clinton.
Clinton was not a place I'd normally stop. To be perfectly honest, I probably wouldn't even have slowed down to the speed limit.
But yesterday's blizzard gave me a rare opportunity to soak up the majesty of the small country town with maybe as many as 300 other stranded travellers.
With the road from Clinton to Balclutha closed, I had no option but to head to the pub, hunker down and stare out the window at the snow falling.
There was a certain irony at being stationed across the road from a taxidermy studio. But I was far from stuffed. While some commuters waited out the poor weather in their vehicles, I helped thicken the queue at the tavern.
Managers Keith and Carol Hill were rushed off their feet making toasties, keeping the wood burner stoked, and making the complimentary hot drinks. Bless them.
"I've been here about 12 months and I've never seen snow like this," Mr Hill said, shortly after I had shaken the worst of the snow from my coat.
"I don't like your prospects of getting out," he added.
"Great. What am I supposed to do?" I thought to myself.
Mr Hill said he had six motel units and three backpacker units. If people slept three to a room, he could accommodate 27 people. If the worst came to the worst, we could sleep on the tavern floor.
I had been in Invercargill to cover the Steel-Mystics game on Monday evening, and my bed that night had been soft and warm. While I was cursing my luck, Toni Kitto was regretting her decision to pick up some milk and top up her telephone card.
The 23-year-old mother of two rounded up the children - 16-month-old Tyler and 2-week-old Ella - and made the 10-minute trip into town.
But having picked up her supplies, she found herself stranded with the rest of us.
"I guess I just have to sit here, I suppose."
Outside, a local girl, Lydia (11), made the most of a day off school with a romp in the snow and several children raced down the main street in sleds.
The place was beginning to warm on me. Not so for a couple of cold-looking tourists I ran into.
Colin Raeside (22), of Scotland, and his girlfriend, Katharina Kohlmeier (22), of Germany, had seen all they wanted of the Otago hamlet.
The couple arrived in Clinton about 8.30pm on Monday. After a meal of boiled potatoes and a cold night on the side of the road, they were more than ready to continue their adventure. Likewise, the nine passengers Intercity bus driver Doug Sneddon had on board.
Some played pool or cards, but Joanna Gilrow (20) used the spare time to study totalitarian regimes.
Yes, really - the second year University of Otago student has a history test tomorrow and was getting to grips with fascism, communism and Nazism.
It is not what I thought I'd be doing today," she said of the delay. "[But] it is quite cool to see everybody talking to each other."
I glanced out the window wistfully at a train heading north and contemplated playing disc 11, track three.
Somehow, I don't think DD Smash's hit Outlook for Thursday would have done much for morale.
• Mr Seconi made it safely home last night.
