The Canterbury town of Omarama was -10.9C this morning, with MetService forecasting a "high" of just 5C for the high country town today.
(file picture) Photo: 123RF
"I looked out the window and there's a bit of hoar frost" - Local Jim Harkin
Local man Jim Harkin said it was very still this morning and there was hoar frost on the trees and it was crunchy on the ground.
"We had that good dump of snow a couple of weeks ago and that's still on the golf course, so won't be playing golf on the golf course for maybe another week or couple of weeks."
That was not going to stop Harkin playing golf though and he said that today he would be going to the Otematata course.
"It's 24km's down the road and I'm hoping it's a bit better than here."
Harkin said the freezing weather can make the roads treacherous.
"You get a bit of moisture on the roads and it freezes it's definitely a bit tricky at times."
With the shortest day of the year yesterday, a tweet from Niwa shows that it has definitely been cold down south.
MetService says hoar frost occurs when sub-zero air is moist enough (for example if conditions are misty or foggy) and the frost crystals grow into a thick coating on trees and bushes.
"During winter Central Otago occasionally has several days of hoar frost in a row as the days are so short, the sun angle so low and the mist so thick, that the winter sun does not adequately warm the ground," MetService says.
State Highway 8 between Twizel and Lake Tekapo is closed due to icy conditions, Waka Kotahi says. Photo: Waka Kotahi / NZ Transport Agency
State Highway 8 between Twizel and Lake Tekapo is closed due to icy conditions, Waka Kotahi says.
Meteorologist Tui McInnes said the weather was colder than expected.
"There would definitely be years where we wouldn't reach -10C, -11C overnight but of course it's not unheard of either ... but it certainly has felt like quite a wintry month."
Omarama was not the only place to get a hoar frost this morning.
In Twizel staff at Hydro cafe said it had been freezing cold this morning with trees outside coated in ice.
Cafe employee Amber Deed said the fire inside the cafe was cranking for customers, some who had been taken aback by the wintry weather.
"A lot of people, particularly if they're passing through, are really surprised at how cold it is and ask us 'is it usually this cold?' And we go 'yeah, no this is just the start of winter for us, we definitely get colder'."
Deed said keeping the layers of clothing on was key for locals today.
Waka Kotahi says State Highway 8 is closed between Twizel and Lake Tekapo due to severely icy conditions.
But no matter how cold it feels, nowhere in Aotearoa can compare to Scott Base at Antarctica where it was -31C yesterday morning, but felt like -48C due to the wind chill factor.