A couple airlifted from Dynamo Hut, in the Skippers area near Queenstown, have been praised by the Rescue Co-ordination Centre for hiring a personal locator beacon (PLB).
RCC spokesman Steve Rendell said the couple had planned to walk part of the Mt Aurum Basin Reserve, accessed via Skippers.
However, about 5.45pm on Saturday the hired beacon was activated after a woman broke her leg.
"We don’t know how she broke it, but it sounds like a reasonably serious break."
A police media spokeswoman said a search team found the couple and the woman was airlifted to Lakes District Hospital.
No information was available regarding her age or nationality.
Mr Rendell said the woman was picked up from near Dynamo Hut, about three hours from Skippers Point according to the Department of Conservation website.
"From our point of view, [it was] fantastic that they had taken the step of hiring a beacon — it would have made things a lot more difficult to raise the alarm without that and that would have obviously compounded the length of time it would have taken to rescue her and she would have conceivably been in a lot of discomfort, I’d imagine.
"These things are not expensive to hire and they can make all the difference."
It is the second search and rescue operation in Queenstown within the past week.
Early on Thursday morning, Australian tourist Robert Galmadez (25) was plucked from near the summit of Ben Lomond, in Queenstown, having been missing for about 30 hours.
