He was arrested without incident in the car park beside the Cromwell fruit sculpture at 1.25pm. Some police officers were carrying firearms.
The arrest of the man came more than 11 hours after the manhunt was sparked by a firearms incident in Blaketown, near Greymouth, about 2am and he was wanted in relation to family harm and firearms offences, was dangerous and was not to be approached, police said.
The large-scale manhunt across several police districts also led to an armed offenders squad callout in Waitati earlier in the day.
A police spokeswoman confirmed the callout was linked to the Blaketown incident.
In Waitati, a witness said about nine armed police officers visited houses in Harvey St.
However, the armed offenders squad left Waitati just after 1pm after failing to find the man.
At the same time, police were ramping up efforts to find the man in Central Otago after receiving reports of him in the area.
He was arrested and held in custody overnight to appear in the Alexandra District Court today. Details of the charges he was facing were not available last night.
