Truckie's immobile home

STUCK: The Emmerson truck covered in snow. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

A Hastings truck driver who was trapped in snowy conditions overnight on Friday recommends the "fantastic experience".

Emmerson transport driver Grant Walker was returning from a round trip to Cambridge, when conditions on the Napier-Taupo Rd became too bad to continue, about 11.30pm.

As he reached the Waipunga River, Mr Walker said the snow started to get heavier.

"It was thick on the road and the truck started to skid so that was it, I pulled over and hoped for the best."

Huddled in the truck's cab with the heater turned on, Mr Walker hunkered down for the night.

"The hardest part was trying to sleep while all the scrapers were going past on the road," he said, adding "sleep" was a generous term.

"I got about an hour from 1am to 2am and then maybe another hour or so ... [day cabs] aren't the most comfortable place to sleep in."

A "complete whiteout" greeted Mr Walker in the morning.

He caught a ride back to Hawke's Bay with Higgins contractors staff, who checked on him through the night.

Yesterday afternoon Mr Walker retrieved the truck, which had about a metre of snow piled against the driver's side.

Although Mr Walker had been with Emmerson for five years, he said he had never had an experience like it.

"I thought it was fantastic, you don't need to join the police to get better work stories ... go drive a truck."