Water restrictions were in place across Queenstown Lakes District, limiting hand-held hosing and reducing when irrigations could be used. Photo:
The reservoirs in the Queenstown Lakes District are recovering after a significant spike in demand triggered a move to the highest water restrictions level.
The district council announced the urgent move for Arrowtown on Saturday, but that has since been partly relaxed.
Water restrictions were in place across the district, limiting hand-held hosing and reducing when irrigations could be used.
Queenstown Lakes District mayor Glyn Lewers told Nine to Noon the district was not expecting to see rain for some weeks, if not months.
It was "rather brown down here" and some nights of rain would be helpful at this stage, Lewers said.
Arrowtown was currently at level 2 for water restrictions after being bumped up to level 3 at the weekend.
Water had been replenished now but Saturday saw the town's reservoir drop below 50 percent.
Queenstown Lakes District mayor Glyn Lewers. Photo: RNZ / Lydia Anderson
The entire district, apart from Arrowtown, was on a level 1 restriction meaning use of hand-held hoses had to be kept to a minimum and irrigation sprinklers could only be used between midnight and 6am.
Lewers said it was a "juggling act" and when reservoirs outflow was higher than inflow, restrictions were triggered.
"If we start to see our capacity to maintain firefighting flows [affected], that's a big one for us."
The Queenstown Lakes District was one of the biggest water consumers in the country.
On average, each person used 440 litres per day compared to the national average of 281 litres per day.
Households in Auckland were metered and the average was only 146 litres per person per day.
Queenstown Lakes District Council infrastructure operations manager Simon Mason previously told RNZ people should water their lawns and garden between 10pm and 6am.
Even reducing shower time by one minute could save up to 20 litres of water per person, he said.
"Every litre of water we save helps us to reduce our carbon footprint too."
