Local resident Peter Garden said Waikaia, a small Southland town, had often suffered from the "post-code lottery," but healthcare became just as accessible as other more populated centres with a helipad in the community.
"We needed to have a private helipad . . . it's a game changer for rural areas.
"It means that older people can come and retire in a remote area like this and know that they've got good access to healthcare."
The locals and various community organisations all contributed money towards it, he said.
The new helipad was placed on the site of an old concrete tennis court that had been sitting unused for some time.
Bringing the helipad to reality took almost two years. The idea came from the local volunteer fire brigade.
Waikaia Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Fire Officer Paul Collins said while it was a Fenz idea, having the support of the entire community was really what made the project take off.
Before the installation of the helipad, medical evacuations, rescues and all sorts of call-outs for injuries and medical emergencies involved standing in a paddock, waiting for touch-down after the helicopter got the all-clear to land.
Now, it was a matter of heading straight to the helipad, for emergency services and anyone needing to land in the town.
"It's going to make it a whole lot easier for everybody," he said.
Helicopters Otago chief executive Graeme Gale said while it might look like an "H in a circle", it also completed a network of helipads in Southland.
There is a helipad in Gore, one in Tapanui, one in Lumsden, however Waikaia sits smack in the middle of all of it.
"If there's an incident or someone's critically unwell in a house in Waikaia, we obviously can't land in the backyard, so we come to here."
"It'll be used not just for this, but also for other similar defence emergencies and police operations as well . . . so, it’s a big deal," Mr Gale said.
