Southern cities feel winter's icy blast 

A second day of extreme winter has meant problems on roads around the south, with snow piled about five centimetres deep at Arthur's Pass and blanketing the Canterbury foothills and Banks Peninsula.

But it was the cities and towns of the deep south that took the full force of the front.

And a 76-year-old Nelson tramper is being hailed a mountain legend after surviving a 200 metre fall, a blizzard and frost bite.

Sylvia Oliver and her Marlborough tramping club mates spent Tuesday night in a snow storm somewhere between Mount Robert and the alpine Lake Angelus in the Nelson Lakes National Park.

The party of eight were rescued on Wednesday morning.

Sylvia Oliver said they just went a bit far and the snow got deep. The intrepid elderly tramper had her survival skills put to the test after rolling 200 metres down the mountain and then suffering severe frost bite.

Senior constable Hamish Blanch from Nelson said they certainly were not prepared for a night out but they all had sleeping bad liners and they huddled together and spent a miserable night.

The trampers were rescued by helicopter after finding an area with cellphone coverage and notifying emergency services.

MetService says the wintry weather and bitterly cold temperatures show no signs of letting up.

That is good news for the general manager of Whakapapa Ski Area Dave Mazey who says the snow brought by the current southwesterly patterns bodes well for the ski season.