Rakiura-Stewart Island in a snowstorm could just be the next best thing to Rarotonga for many school holiday visitors on the island this week.

Southland district councillor Bruce Ford has lived on the island since 1968 and cannot recall many snowfalls during his time. 

This morning, as snow fell outside, he was browsing the internet for photos of Te Anau and Queenstown under a heavy blanket of snow and having a laugh remembering a conversation from the pub the night before.

Advertisement

“I went down the pub last night at six o’clock and the place was very, very busy, people everywhere.”

“One lady I was talking to was saying she had intended to be in Rarotonga but this was the next best thing. No passport required to see these sorts of things,” he joked.

The snow has prompted excitement in the small island community, which is presently hosting many families and visitors during the first week of the spring school holidays.

It also caused a temporary power cut, as people turned on their heat pumps and prompted a sudden surge in electricity demand.

Stewart Island-Rakiura ward community board chairman Jon Spraggon said the snowfall was quite rare but conditions were calm and the chill factor was not that high.

When he did the weather station at abut 9.30am it was one degree Celsius.

Snow in Oban. PHOTO: Kylie Bakker/Real Journeys

“I went down the street for about half an hour and by the time I came back up the tracks had snowed over. It’s been snowing for the last half hour or more,” he said, when contacted by the Southland App.

“The last time it was like this was quite a few years back, way back when the [Invercargill] stadium collapsed.’’

While he was down the street, he met the people restoring power to Oban township.

“A lot of Stewart Islanders have heat pumps these days, and it was running at some of the highest power usage levels at the present time,” he said.

“There are a lot of visitors on the island at the moment. I know that Central Southland College started a tramp yesterday but they will be in the bush so it will be a little different there. It will be an interesting tramp for them. It will be hut to hut.”

The snow just added to the adventure of going on holiday to Stewart Island during 2020. 

“It has been one of those years,’’ Mr Spraggon said.

Advertisement

Mr Ford thought it had been about 10 years since it last snowed.

“We had snow one occasion on Christmas Day and everyone remembers that but apart from that, it’s pretty irregular.’’

Stewart Islanders didn’t have to go out and do anything and could stay home, stoke the fire and boil the kettle, he said.

The power outage was “very unusual’’ but “that’s all right. We have plenty of things to do inside.”

The community was “happy enough” at the moment, weathering the COVID-19 storm and loss of international tourism, Mr Ford said.

“That jet flight from Auckland to Invercargill has been quite a boon. We can have people from Auckland to Stewart Island in three and a half hours.’’ 

“We are having a lot of bird watching people, trampers and the likes. And we have Kiwis running around the township. People don’t believe that.”

“The place is a bit of a slowdown and a reckoner, as to how things have changed in other parts of the world. You are five minutes out of the township and you are back amongst in the bush and it is really quite lovely. No matter how many times you look at it, it is just as lovely again,” Mr Ford said.