Stiff upper lip is the attitude in Arthur's Pass - the Canterbury township currently overrun by mice.

Arthur's Pass Wildlife Trust chair Judy Charles says millions of mice have appeared in the alpine village and surrounding forest over the past month.

Despite them entering people's homes and baches, she says the locals are pretty upbeat - with some keen to take part in a competition to see who can catch the most and who has the best traps.

"Every body's just taking it in their stride - it's happened before. Probably the last time that it was as bad as this was '95, and the numbers were about the same," she says.

A flood ended the previous record plague in 1995.