It unfolded about two hours earlier when the visitor to the area, understood to be a 34-year-old man from Southland, suffered "multiple fractures" after falling down the shaft.
The Brunner and Greymouth volunteer fire brigades were called to the scene, along with police and a Fire and Emergency New Zealand lines rescue team at 11.01am.
The Tyneside Mine shaft is on the Dobson side of the Grey River adjoining State Highway7, about 12km east of Greymouth.
Brunner is a popular visitor site with access via a parking area near the old coalmine shaft.
Brunner chief fire officer Rob Lunn said the man had ventured past a fenced and signposted area to the shaft, where he slipped and fell about 30m.
Mr Lunn said the shaft had "a slight angled slide into it, then it is close to vertical".
"The fenced-off area measures about six or eight metres square but the fence has been cut at some point by an unknown person and had weeds growing through it. It is also signposted with warnings," he said.
Fenz lines rescue team carried out what was a "very complex operation". A volunteer was first lowered down into the shaft at an unstable entry point to reach the stricken visitor.
The rescuers then slowly winched the patient back up the shaft while strapped to a stretcher along with his rescuer.
The injured man was then transported to hospital.
Mr Lunn said the visitor was "a very lucky man" with some serious injuries.
The man would have died as "nobody would have heard him" were it not for his family being there.
It is the second incident attended by emergency services at the historic Brunner Bridge visitor site in a matter of weeks.
A woman suffered head injuries while using a rope swing under the nearby bridge on August 11. — Greymouth Star
By Meg Fulford
