The birds had been reared in captivity as part of the Department of Conservation's black stilt recovery programme.
Intensive management by Doc has prevented the wading birds from becoming extinct, and captive breeding programmes are crucial to the survival of the species.
Doc's Twizel biodiversity programme manager Dean Nelson said some of the birds released were raised at wildlife habitat Peacock Springs, on the outskirts of Christchurch.
As they came out of the boxes on Friday, to take their first steps to freedom, they encountered snow and started shaking their feet, he said.
The birds were not fitted with transmitters, because there was not enough funding.
Several seasons of transmitter work had previously been done - allowing Doc staff to monitor if a bird had died, as well as tracking it - and some good information had been gleaned, he said.
The Lake Tekapo site was outside Doc's main Tasman Valley predator control site, but some pre-release predator control work had been done.
There had been a slight drop in the total black stilt population, but the number of breeding pairs in the wild continued to rise, with 20 productive breeding pairs this past season, he said.