Senior Sergeant Dave Scott said the main concern was that the man was missing, drunk and could have developed hypothermia in the near-freezing weather because he was not dressed appropriately.
"The fact we found him and he was safe and well, that's a good news story from our point of view," Mr Scott said.
"We had concerns he was lost and hypothermic and needed to be rescued."
However, he said that given the man appeared to have become lost after drinking, his actions had put others at an inconvenience.
"Search and rescue volunteers gave up their sleeping time to be out there in the cold looking for him," Mr Scott said.
"Maybe, upon reflection, he's caused a bit of inconvenience for a lot of people."
Central South Island Helicopters pilot John Oakes said the man was found sheltering in a hut around 2km from where he went missing.
Mr Oakes, a search and rescue volunteer, took off at daybreak to join the search, and located the man shortly afterwards.
Some of the group from the hut joined Mr Oakes, and they hit the skies scouring the ground for their friend.
"From up above we could see where we thought he would have gone, and after quite a short time we went down and discovered him in another shelter a couple of k's away down a ridge," he said.
"He must have come across it, I don't know how or why. It was pretty cold so it was a good thing probably."
The man "wasn't too bad" when found, Mr Oakes said, just "a little bit cold".
It was not known what caused the man to wander off from the hut so unprepared for the conditions.
