Paddocks turned into swamps as snow replaced by rain down south

The wintry blast sweeping New Zealand is still causing issues in several parts of the country.

The fast and furious dumping of snow in the south has been replaced with heavy rain which left some farmers on edge as their paddocks turn into swamps.

"We're preparing for a flood that may come. We've been rung from upstream to say there's a lot of snow melt happening in a hurry, so we're just moving our animals and being prepared," West Otago farmer Robert Kane told 1News.

South Otago farmland was swamped too, but the bitter temperatures remain.

"It's melted quite quickly and the ground can't handle it so [the] paddocks are quite wet and the creeks are up today," farmer James Sinclair said.

But there's a silver lining in the cold conditions for those hitting the slopes with long lines of skiers flocking to The Remarkables and making the most of the school holidays.

It was a slow and steady climb to the top of the Queenstown skifield with traffic bumper to bumper.

"What you do for skiing eh?," a tourist said to 1News. Another said they'd been waiting "a little bit more than an hour" to get the snow chains on.

Around 17cm of snow fell overnight but that's expected to reach closer to 30cm by tomorrow.

But the gridlock and poor visibility on the slopes did not deter keen ski bunnies, with many Australian and local school holiday tourists excited to get some runs in.

The cold blast is a massive cash injection for the resort town that's been a long time coming.

NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson, who operates The Remarkables and Coronet Peak, said "it's so cool to see town busy again. We have the working holiday market back so that's helped with our labour force as well."