The New Zealand Transport Agency says it may consider closing roads earlier in the event of storms in the future.
One-hundred-and-fifteen tourists spent Thursday night trapped in their cars between Fox Glacier and Franz Josef.
Tourists involved were critical of the official response.
Peter Connors of the New Zealand Transport Agency told 1 NEWS:"Obviously we could always do things better. That just goes without saying. When we get 115 trapped none of us are happy about it."
Several frustrated travellers were left questioning why the highway was open.
The Transport Agency did put out an alert not to travel, but it was issued after many had already began their travels.
"The day before we did send a warning out, essential vehicles only, essential travel only. it was predicted and we tried to get that warning out," Mr Connors said.
State Highway Six was reopened today as work continues on slips from Haast to Westport.
When asked about considering closing roads earlier in events of storms Mr Connors said: "I think that's one of things we'll have to look at. We'll have to talk to industry about that. It's not something we would do on our own."
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