Snow falls in Wellington for the first time in 15 years while snow blanketed Dunedin and Christchurch on the country’s south island

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.