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Hundreds of ferry travellers were stranded and motorists were hampered by road closures yesterday as the wintry weather moved up the country and gave southerners a reprieve.
Several Cook Strait ferry crossings were cancelled early yesterday as high winds created 5m swells, while several roads in the central
North Island were affected by snow. In the south, the snow was clearing and being replaced with heavy frosts.
The swells in Cook Strait meant many passenger ferry crossings were not considered safe to proceed.
Bluebridge cancelled all of its passenger ferry crossings.
Several hundred passengers were affected, said spokeswoman Wendy Pannett.
"It's just not comfortable enough for our passengers.
"We haven't had people waiting because as soon as we made the decision we have phoned everybody we could get hold of.
"People understand there is nothing we can do about conditions on the strait."
The Interislander ferry Kaitaki sailed at midday from Wellington after delays and cleared the backlog of passengers from the capital and from Picton on the return journey.
Other services with smaller ferries had to be cancelled or delayed. Depending on whether other services went ahead last night, some people could have missed out, said spokeswoman Lisa Gibbison.
About 700 to 800 Interislander passengers were affected.
"There are a lot of people that don't wish to be out [in Cook Strait] in weather like this. We are giving everybody the option of changing to travel on another date."
Light snow meant the Desert Road was closed from Monday night through to about midday yesterday and motorists travelling last night were warned about ice.
The Rimutaka Hill Road on State Highway 2 and the Napier-Taupo Road, State Highway 5, were reopened yesterday after closures overnight.
In the South Island, Transit urged motorists in Otago and Southland to carry chains.
Light snow showers were expected about Mt Ruapehu and the Tararua and Raukumara ranges overnight, before clearing this evening.
MetService weather ambassador Bob McDavitt said a wintry anti-cyclone moving on to the country would mean rapid cooling and severe frosts for the rest of the week.
The high pressure would keep further snow at bay for the next few days.
South Island farmers have come through the latest cold snap unscathed and say the snow dump will, in fact, have some benefits as they look ahead to spring.
Despite the snow paralysing much of Otago in recent days, farmers were well prepared for the conditions and say their stock are still in good shape.
"We are not seeing farmers crying out for stock feed or anything like that," said Otago farmer Richard Burdon. "This has been well-predicted, so people had plenty of warning.
"It's business as usual really. Unlike Auckland, we have a serious winter down here."
Mr Burdon, the Otago Federated Farmers president, said the melted snow was actually important to help build up irrigation aquifers for spring, while the snow also created boundaries on farms to prevent stock becoming stranded in isolated high-altitude areas.
"If the grass doesn't grow we can't feed the right amount of stock.
"When we just feed them supplements, we have to feed so much more to maintain the stock."
Southland Federated Farmers president David Rose said farmers were fortunate the cold snap came after a "very good" autumn.
"People have got very good grass cover. It's good to have an event like this in the middle of winter.
"You don't want them in the middle of lambing or calving time.
"You have your spring and your winter - it's when the two get out of kilter, there's the problem."
