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A Queenstown man left his home, hopped on his snowboard and headed into town after the snow “fell” on Monday.
The snow came from a “weather bomb” or “cyclone bomb,” which brought spring snow to parts of the South Island.
This type of storm occurs when low pressure strengthens at a rate of 24 hectopascals (hPa) in 24 hours, according to Niwa. Hectopascals is the unit used to measure the range of naturally occurring air pressures in the atmosphere.
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Snow fell around Queenstown overnight but had not settled in low-lying areas due to the warm ground temperature, according to a report from the Queenstown Lakes District Council.
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Tom Woodward, a Queenstown man living in the elevated suburb of Fernhill, said people cheered for him as he snowboarded past jammed buses and cars this morning.
Woodward had planned to head to The Remarkables skifield to take advantage of the fresh powder, but when he saw that it was closed, he had to adjust his plans.
He said the snow was “really falling” around 8 a.m., accumulating up to a foot high in places, though it was slightly lower on warm roads.
Alison Metherell / Supplied
A dusting of snow in the Queenstown suburb of Fernhill on Monday morning.
Woodward grabbed his gear and started snowboarding from his front door, passing buses and crashed cars and police officers trying to help those who were trapped.
He said he couldn’t get to town because there wasn’t enough snow below due to the heat from the road.
He planned to hike to a nearby meadow for more snowboarding on Monday afternoon, because it was cooler than the road, so more snow had settled there.
Woodward said he was prepared to hit the Remarkables on Tuesday, which could be the best day of the season depending on the wind.
The runway at Queenstown airport was cleared Monday morning and flights were canceled until further notice.
Snow was expected throughout the day and it continued to fall hard. More flight information was available at queenstownairport.co.nz.
North Island National MPs Mark Mitchell and Tim van de Molan spent an unusually snowy morning trapped in Queenstown.
Mitchell’s morning flight was canceled and van de Molan was waiting to find out if his afternoon flight would leave Queenstown when the snow began to ease.
Van den Molan and Southland National candidate Joseph Mooney spent part of the morning pushing stuck cars on the road near Arrowtown.
“Tim is from Waikato … he loved it,” Mooney said.
Joseph Mooney / Things
National’s Southland candidate Joseph Mooney says there was traffic chaos on the Queenstown roads Monday morning due to snow.
Crown Range between Queenstown and Wānaka was closed overnight but reopened on Monday after being plowed.
However, another 10 cm of snow was expected on the road during the day, so all cars had to have chains.
Chains must also be carried on SH6 between Haast and Makarora.
The Remarkables ski area was affected by about 12 inches of snow, and the snow continued to fall on Monday morning. The field was closed due to strong winds.
Alison Metherell / Supplied
Snow covers parts of Queenstown on Monday morning.
The Cardrona ski field near Wānaka was also closed due to the storm, while Coronet Peak closed for the season on Sunday.
Traffic on the main Alpine passes was also interrupted by snow.
The Lewis Pass (SH7) between Canterbury and the West Coast closed around 6.30am on Monday due to snow. The highway reopened shortly before 10:30 a.m. M.
SH6 between Franz Josef and Fox Glacier closed around 10 a.m. M. Due to snow and a truck that had to be removed. It was expected to reopen at noon.
It was a cold start for most of the southern hubs on Monday. Christchurch was 4.5 degrees Celsius at 7am, Ashburton was 3.9C, Timaru was 0.5C, Dunedin was 5.1C, Queenstown was 2.4C, Wānaka was 2.5C, and Invercargill was 1C.
METSERVICE
MetService’s highest observed wind gusts on Sunday.
Gusts of over 100km / h were felt on both the northern and southern islands as a stormy front swept across the country over the weekend.
Areas that withstood the brunt of the strong winds included Fiordland, with gusts of 155 km / h.
Wellington also saw winds of up to 135km / h and gusts at Manukau Heads in Auckland reached 130km / h.
In Auckland, the New Zealand Transport Agency urged motorists to exercise caution when crossing the damaged Harbor Bridge on Monday and Tuesday as wind gusts of 80km / h were forecast.
The city experienced a comfortable maximum of 20 ° C on Sunday, but MetService forecaster Paul Ngamanu said Wednesday that the maximum would be just 14 ° C.
MetService meteorologist Karl Loots said Wellington and the Wairarapa region would be affected by gales from the northwest Monday afternoon and a period of heavy rain was expected.
But there will be a respite from the wind on Tuesday, and the weather will improve even more on Wednesday and Thursday, he said.
People living in Hawke’s Bay would also be affected by wind gusts from the northwest, but the weather would be “predominantly good” with the possibility of some rain, he said.
In a statement, the Wellington Regional Emergency Management Office (WREMO) said large swells were expected for Wellington and Wairarapa on Monday.
John Bisset / Stuff
Snow could fall to low levels on the South Island, warns MetService.
Waves of up to 4 meters in height were expected Tuesday night, finally declining to 3.5m on Wednesday before declining further later in the week.
A large storm surge watch was also set up between Paekākāriki and Raumati South, as there was a forecast for northwest swells that would reach between 3m and 3.5m in height, WREMO said.
The storm surge was expected to rise to 4.45m Monday afternoon before subsiding Monday night.
There were several reports of downed trees in the Wellington region overnight from Saturday to Sunday.
A New Zealand Fire and Emergencies (Fenz) spokesperson for the central area said it had received around 20 weather-related calls in Wellington on Sunday. There was no significant damage, but the trees had fallen and some power lines were down, he said.
A police spokeswoman said there had been damage to an SH1 sign near Paekākāriki.
Fenz spokesman Andrew Norris said crews had been called in for about 10 weather-related jobs across the South Island. All of them were minor jobs and mostly related to loose roofs or damage to power lines.
Orion, the Christchurch power provider, had five reported blackouts due to “trees / vegetation in the lines” on its website on Sunday. All outages were fixed by 6.25pm
The end of the week seemed calmer, and the weather improved Thursday, Ngamanu said.
