The Hanmer Springs Thermal pools are the trademark of the town, which temporarily ran out of water on Tuesday night.

A town bustling with holidaymakers ran out of water on Tuesday night, leaving some locals scrambling to conserve water.

Parts of North Canterbury's Hanmer Springs had no water from about 8pm until after midnight, due to heavy usage causing the reservoir to run dry.

The town is at peak capacity as holidaymakers flood the area for New Year's Eve celebrations.

For some in the centre of town, water was cut-off completely, requiring visitors to forgo showers and ask neighbours for bottled water to flush their toilets.

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Andrew Anisimov, owner of The Chalets motel, had to ask neighbours for bottled water for his 40 guests.

"It's a busy season, you know, because of the holidays, so it wasn't so good for us. The council said it was due to big consumption from the town, but for me, that's a strange reason."

The water supply had recovered by Wednesday morning, but he was concerned it would happen again.

"[Guests] couldn't take a shower, of course, but people who live down here brought us drinking water and water for flushing toilets, which we spread to the units.

"Hopefully it will be good now. We would like to know what has happened," Anisimov said.

Other businesses, such as the local campground, were conserving water to allow the reservoir to fill again.

The pools at the centre of town were affected, but only in a small way, manager Graeme Abbott said.

"We effectively ran out of shower water, but if there was a perfect time for it, it was when it happened. The town ran out of water late in the piece."

They had turned off sprinklers to conserve water, but were not expecting any long term issues.

The impact had been varied around the village, said Paul Baigent, owner of the St James hotel and head of the Hanmer business association,

He noticed water pressure had dropped about 9.30pm, but it had not caused a problem due to the time of day.

"Fortunately it was late in the day, so it didn't really affect our guests I don't think."

Local councillor Jason Fletcher described the issue as a "perfect storm", but said there were no general water supply issues in the town.

Plastic bags and other debris had caused blockages earlier in the day, requiring the reservoir be turned off for maintenance. Higher than expected usage throughout the day meant demand outstripped supply, resulting in water running out.

"Usually when the village is at capacity, we would drop to 70 per cent of our storage. We've got plenty of water. It's not about the reservoir, it's the pumping to the tanks, which ran out."

It would take about three days to restore the supply to 100 per cent, he said.

"Under normal circumstances, it's not an issue as far as supply goes."

The whole Canterbury region was bracing for a harsh summer, expecting water supplies to be hammered by increased usage.

Drought conditions were expected to continue in North Canterbury following a vicious drought last year that left many farmers struggling.

Akaroa, Amberley and the entire Selwyn district had water restrictions in place, forbidding locals from watering their gardens with a hose every day.

Christchurch city was already facing higher than usual demand.

Tim Joyce, acting city water and waste unit manager, said the council began monitoring usage closely when a certain figure was breached.

At this stage last year, it had reached that point once – this year it had already exceeded it at least 10 times.