A Lumsden teenager and her mother are furious with Jetstar after the 17-year-old endured a 36-hour travel nightmare in which her flight was diverted and her bus became stuck in snow.
A storm that hit the lower South Island on Thursday forced Claudia Orchard's flight from Auckland to Queenstown to be diverted to Christchurch.
The passengers were put on three buses bound for the resort, but Miss Orchard's bus became stuck in snow near Fairlie for more than five hours before they were rescued by locals.
Claudia said she and two friends were ''completely kept in the dark'' by Jetstar throughout their ordeal.
The passengers were taken to a pub in Fairlie without power before another bus took them to Timaru, where they were put up in a hotel for the night.
''We're three 17-year-old girls with no legal guardian with us. We were flabbergasted and didn't know what to do.''
When told early yesterday they would have to spend a second night in Timaru because central South Island highways remained closed, they decided to pay $60 each for another bus to take them to Lumsden through Dunedin and Gore.
They finally arrived at her parents' home about 5pm. Her mother, Honorine, said her daughter had come home for a long weekend from Katikati, near Tauranga, where she was spending her last year of high school.
''She's been travelling since Wednesday to get here, and it's just been one drama after another.''
The New Zealand Herald reported that passengers from the other two buses were stranded in Christchurch for 24 hours.
Nicola Murphy said the situation had been a ''nightmare'', with people on the brink of crying or ''having a breakdown''.
Some had spent their own money on replacement flights with different airlines instead of waiting for Jetstar to provide answers.
''Instead of turning back to Auckland, they dumped us in Christchurch knowing they don't fly from Christchurch. Then they got 120 passengers on three coaches at 10.40am when the Met office had closed [roads] due to snow.''
Jetstar corporate communications manager Phil Boeyen said it had not told the bus company which route to take to Queenstown, and he could not comment on the decision to take the inland route.
But he acknowledged its communication with passengers had not been ideal.
