Early Cook Strait ferry sailings cancelled after stormy day

Snow has closed two state highways in the central North Island, with numerous crashes causing further road closures after a day of wintry weather.

State Highway 1 is closed at the Desert Rd, and State Highway 46 from Tongariro to Rangipo.

MetService has a road snowfall warning in place for the Desert Road but said the showers were expected to clear around midday.

Several other highways in the centre of the island are also closed, due to crashes.

A truck has rolled on State Highway 47 between National Park and Turangi and another truck crash in the Manawatū-Whanganui region has closed State Highway 4 from Tohunga Junction to Manunui.

In Taranaki, State Highway 3 near Onaero River Road is also closed due to a serious crash.

Remutaka Road (SH2) north of Wellington, which had been closed on Wednesday due to snow, reopened between Kaitoke and Featherston.

MetService said low temperatures would bring more snow to the road and Waka Kotahi is warning drivers to take extra care.

Strong wind watches are in place for Wellington and Wairarapa about the coast and south of Masterton (until midday), and for Chatham Islands (until 10am Friday).

MetService said winds in both areas could approach severe gale in exposed places.

Stormy conditions around the country led to power outages, flight and ferry cancellations and road closures on Wednesday.

Interislander earlier cancelled the 2.30am Picton to Wellington sailing on Thursday, and said the Kaitaki would run as a freight only vessel and the Aratere would be its key passenger ship.

It had cancelled four sailings on Wednesday because of increasing swells and deteriorating conditions.

Interislander said it was monitoring the weather regularly and warned other sailings may run late.

Bluebridge cancelled its 2am Cook Strait ferry service from Wellington to Picton and its 2.30am sailing from Picton to Wellington.

Areas further north did not escape either, with strong wind gusts forcing some lanes of the Auckland Harbour Bridge to be closed at times on Wednesday and hail storms lashing parts of the city.

MetService said this morning that Auckland had just experienced its coldest night of the year, and further chilly temperatures were expected.

However, the wintry weather gave South Island ski fields a welcome dusting of snow, with 25cm accumulating on Queenstown's Coronet Peak on Wednesday.

The ski field had to be closed yesterday due to the high winds, but staff were now expecting an influx of skiers who have been waiting for good conditions all season.

Cardrona spokesperson Laura Hedley told Morning Report it was the snow they had been waiting for all winter.

"Our team are absolutely stoked, we've had probably about 45 centimetres over the past couple of days, which is great."

Hedley said prior to yesterday's weather, the ski field had a fairly small base of snow, with much of it man-made.

"Our snow guns and our snow makers have been working pretty hard to get everything open, so this is definitely welcome."

The dump of snow would set the resort up for the season, she said.

"We've had the cold temperatures, which meant we could make snow, which was great, but we just haven't had that precipitation - every storm that's come through this year's kind of been around 4, 5 centimetres which isn't ideal, I mean, it all adds up but this one being more like 40 - 50[cm] is much better.

"This'll get us through."

The fresh snow would also allow some great off-trail skiing, she said.

"The wind pushed the snow around quite a bit so there'll be some really big drifts of snow - over a metre in places - and I'm sure there'll be those hardcore who are gonna get out there and get into it.

"The good thing is there'll be heaps of terrain to explore."

Cardrona, near Wānaka, also had to be closed yesterday, with snow falling all day and strong winds blowing on the mountain, but it has reopened today.

The Remarkables and Treble Cone ski fields are also open.