Heavy rain has extinguished a large scrub fire burning for six days near Queenstown, and which blazed a path of destruction through a Wakatipu high country station.
The fire, which began last Sunday, flared up several times during the week and scorched more than 700ha of land on both sides of State Highway 6 between Kingston and Glenorchy, about 25km south of Queenstown.
The fire jumped the highway on Wednesday to spread from Lake Wakatipu into the Hector Mountains and Loch Linnhe Station.
However, Queenstown Lakes District Council Principal Rural Fire Officer Gordon Bailey yesterday said heavy rain beginning on Friday night had doused the remaining flames and hotspots, and the fire was now out.
‘‘Nature has been kind to us and the area received a good soaking of rain,'' Mr Bailey said.
The National Incident Management team and fire crews had been stood down, but would remain on standby, he said.
It took 11 helicopters, three 10-tonne diggers, chainsaws and more than 70 people to fight the fire.
The total bill was expected to be ‘‘hundreds of thousands of dollars'', although the exact cost was still being calculated, Mr Bailey said.
The council would like to hear from anyone who was travelling on the Kingston highway on the afternoon of Sunday, March 16 between 2pm and 6pm, who had information that could assist the investigation, he said.
