Last night police confirmed the two bodies recovered earlier this week were French Canadians Louis-Vincent Lessard and Etienne Lemieux, both aged 23.
In a statement, Mr Lemieux's family thanked police in New Zealand and Montreal for their ''diligence, effort and support''.
''We want people to know Etienne was a remarkable young man who went to New Zealand and fulfilled his dream.
''We would also like to thank everyone who transmitted messages of encouragement as well as information to help advance the search effort.''
The University of Montreal students were on holiday in New Zealand and were last seen on July 7, travelling by bus from Queenstown to Te Anau.
The alarm was raised when they failed to arrive home in Canada on July 24, as planned.
Searchers located one body on Sunday afternoon and the second shortly after lunchtime on Monday.
Their bodies were found in avalanche debris near the Kepler Track.
Mr Lessard's family said they were ''extremely grateful'' for the way the search was conducted and thanked those ''near and far for the efforts they made''.
Southern District Police said post-mortems were completed yesterday morning.
Police would continue to work with the Canadian consular services in New Zealand and authorities in Montreal to repatriate the men's bodies to Canada as soon as possible.
