The pair travelled to Te Anau from Queenstown on an Intercity bus on July 7, and they were reported overdue from a tramp on Saturday, when they missed travel connections out of New Zealand.
Police said the 23-year-olds bodies would be repatriated to Canada as soon as possible.
Both families of the men made a statement through police.
The family of Mr Lemieux said they wanted to thank the New Zealand Police and Montreal Police Service "for their diligence, effort and support during this difficult time, as well as all the people involved in the search and rescue effort."
"We would also like to thank everyone who transmitted messages of encouragement as well as information to help advance the search effort," the family said.
"We want people to know that Etienne was a remarkable young man who went to New Zealand and fulfilled his dream."
The family of Mr Lessard said: "The Goyette-Lessard family is extremely grateful in the way the search was conducted and wish to thank everyone both near and far for the efforts they made during these operations.
"A very special thank you to Detective Lisa Watt of the New Zealand Police and Detective Debrah Dunlop of the Montreal Police Service for their exceptional work.
"Thank you for all your efforts."
A post-mortem was completed this morning on the bodies.
