Queenstown Lakes District Council Principal Rural Fire Officer Gordon Bailey said the fire, about 3km from Wye Creek towards Kingston, was first detected on Sunday.
Initially, there had been been several small fires, which were extinguished. However, one was continuing to cause problems.
Fire crews had attended the fire on four occasions since Sunday, with a flare-up on Monday evening requiring a helicopter with night vision technology and volunteer crews from the Department of Conservation, Arrowtown, Frankton and Queenstown.
The blaze was being contained in a stretch of vegetation between the lake shore and the highway, but had moved towards the lake through thick bracken.
Adding to the problem was a ‘‘wind tunnel'', which meant wind was coming from all directions, causing any hot spot to re-ignite.
More helicopters were enlisted yesterday morning to continue dousing the flames, while council and Delta ground crews dampened down hot spots, Mr Bailey said.
‘‘The bracken is tinder dry and it may not be possible to contain the fire for several days to come. Already, an area about a kilometre in length and 100m wide has been burnt.''
While the council was able to make use of the national rural firefighting fund, Mr Bailey said it would ‘‘certainly be looking to extract costs'' if the cause of the fire could be pinpointed.
Reports that two vintage traction engines had travelled the road before the fires started on Sunday had been investigated, but the council was not sure whether they were responsible.
‘‘At this stage investigations will be ongoing,'' Mr Bailey said.
He said the council wanted to hear from anyone with relevant information who had travelled the road between 3pm and 6pm on Sunday and had witnessed anything which might have contributed to the fires.
A complete district-wide fire ban was still in place.
