The operation to evacuate 360 tourists stranded in Milford Sound since Monday was completed yesterday.
That included 195 yesterday.
Civil Defence Emergency Management Southland response adviser Paul Le Roux confirmed the tourists and ‘‘a handful of staff’’ were successfully uplifted and relocated to safety after noon.
‘‘Everyone has been set up with accommodation in the Te Anau area and 90% of those people were extracted to Queenstown today.’’
Four flights took off from Manapouri during the afternoon and the last flight out was at 4.30pm, he said.
While many of those helicoptered from Milford were now on to the next leg of their journeys, a few people had decided to stay in Te Anau for another night.
Mr Le Roux said the operation would not have been possible without the help of police, firefighters, Red Cross staff, transport services, including Real Journeys, and the generosity of the entire Te Anau community.
United States tourists Tara and John Packo had been on a cruise ship in Milford Sound earlier this week when ‘‘all hell broke loose’’.
The couple had expected to fly home from Queenstown tomorrow, but their trip was cut short when the state of emergency was declared in Milford.
Mrs Packo said about 62 people had been on the boat on Monday when they were told they would not be able to get out of Milford due to road closures.
Three days ago, ‘‘everything was fine’’, until the flooding began to rise and ‘‘all hell broke loose’’, she said.
‘‘It wasn’t until late last night they told us to be prepared to be taken by the helicopters [to Te Anau] in the morning.’’
Groups of 24 to 26 people were transported to the helicopter launch pad yesterday, from where five to six people at a time were airlifted to Knobs Flat on a 20-minute flight.
Despite the challenging circumstances, the Packos were in good spirits.
‘‘If you asked us if the experience would stop us from coming back we would say no way,’’ Mrs Packo said.
‘‘Everyone here has been knocking themselves out trying to accommodate us.’’
