Nine helicopters and three planes were due to take to the air again this morning as efforts to fight the massive Castle Hill scrub fire ramp back up.
An overnight crew of firefighters fought the blaze from State Highway 73 as it was deemed too dangerous to go off road in the dark.
Fire and Emergency NZ said on Friday morning the blaze did not enter Castle Hill village overnight but remains uncontained.
On Thursday night, firefighters encouraged Castle Hill residents to leave their homes as the 535-hectare scrub fire burned.
"The winds are a lot lighter than we saw yesterday, and I think we are looking at cooler temperatures that are speeding up and across the country," MetService meteorologist John Law told Morning Report on Friday.
"And we should hopefully see - as we get through towards the afternoon - a bit more in the way of cloud building up and the chance of some showers to come through as well, hopefully helping things be a little bit more containable and a little bit more bearable across the region."
Three school camps staying about a kilometre from the fireground were evacuated as a precaution yesterday, as was Flock Hill Lodge.
State Highway 73 is closed between Castle Hill and Arthur's Pass Village.
A community meeting is scheduled for 1pm on Friday at the Tawera Memorial Hall in Springfield in case people were still evacuated at that point.
