Antarctic cold snap brings rare snow to New Zealand cities

Temperatures have plummeted across New Zealand as an Antarctic cold snap hovers over the country, delighting the capital, Wellington, which experienced snow for the first time in 15 years, while giving a southern city’s residents a chance to ski through the streets.

The front moved in on Tuesday, with much of the country waking to freezing conditions, frosts, snowfall, hail and bitingly cold wind.

Conditions persisted on Wednesday morning, with three South Island locations reaching -9C. Some highways were closed, while parts of the North Island’s east coast woke to thick hail storms.

In Wellington, a mix of sleet and snow fell to sea level just after midday on Tuesday, for the first time in 11 years. Office workers rushed out of their buildings to stand in the flurries and elated residents expressed shock and joy as they flooded social media with footage.

It was a “winter wonderland”, wrote one social media user.

“Snow in Wellington?! Amazing! What a way to turn a day around,” wrote another.

“Finding the excitement around this so wholesome. I went to my office window and every window in the building opposite was filled with people watching too,” someone wrote on Reddit.

Students in Dunedin, the South Island’s second largest city, were sent home on Tuesday, after snow blanketed the city and many took the opportunity to make the most of the weather.

Video footage in local media outlets showed residents snowboarding down the city’s streets, with one daring skier flying down Baldwin Street – recognised by the Guinness World Records as the world’s steepest street.

“The thing I love about Dunedin is you get half an inch of snow maybe twice a year and everyone loses their minds,” wrote one social media user.

Further north, Christchurch’s New Brighton Beach was covered in a dusting of snow and a plane had to abort its landing into the Christchurch International Airport due to wind and rain.

Police responded to multiple incidents of cars sliding off icy roads, and urged the public to avoid travel.

Temperatures were set to warm on Wednesday but would plunge again overnight, with Thursday likely to be the coldest morning of the year in parts of the country, Metservice, New Zealand’s weather bureau, said.

Meanwhile, Transpower, the national grid operator, said it recorded the highest-ever electricity use during Wednesday morning’s peak and warned there may be an energy shortfall on Friday morning.