A tramper with suspected hypothermia has been successfully airlifted from a ridge on the Lewis Pass this morning after being stranded there yesterday afternoon.
The Garden City Summit Rescue helicopter from Nelson reached the 22-year-old woman just before 7am after bad weather prevented air access yesterday, the Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) says.
The woman was being taken to hospital in a moderate condition.
She'd been part of a group of seven on the St James walkway, just south of the Nelson Lakes National Park.
The group set off a distress beacon around 2.25pm yesterday.
They had also been in contact via Canterbury Mountain Radio, and advised that one of their party, a 22-year-old woman, had suspected hypothermia.
Three of the group, including the patient, spent the night in a tent on a ridge above the walkway's Cannibal Gorge Hut. The other four spent the night in the hut.
It is currently 4.5 degrees Celsius with light winds in Nelson, according to the Metservice website.