South Island fires rage on

Fire crews are still working to battle fires which broke out near Queenstown and in Christchurch's Port Hills on Wednesday and say they do not know how long it will take to contain them.

Fire service communications centre manager Jan Wills said helicopters were still dropping buckets of water to contain a fire next to Lake Wakatipu about 30 kilometres from Queenstown in an area known as the Devil's Staircase.

"The flames are up to about about 7000 feet (2100m) above sea level. There are five helicopters on water dropping duty with two on water taxi duty. The fire is still aggressive on one front," she said.

More than 1000 hectares has been destroyed in the fire on State Highway 6, between Queenstown and Kingston.

Nine helicopters and 10 ground crew were battling the blaze.

Meanwhile ground crews are still working to fight a fire near Summit Road on the Port Hills which has burned around 20ha since it began in the early hours of Wednesday.

Wills said ground crews and heavy machinery would continue to deal with hotspots in the area. It was hard to say when either fire would be extinguished due to continuing dry weather.

- © Fairfax NZ News