Two Australians tourists have their cellphones and a helicopter pilot to thank after the novice paragliders ended up on a mountain ridge in changeable conditions last night.
Emergency services received a call from the uninjured men at 7pm reporting they were lost on an unidentified mountain and required the assistance of a helicopter.
A Police Communications spokesman said the men had no GPS unit or flares, so a rescue effort was co-ordinated through Queenstown police.
Heliworks Queenstown Helicopters Ltd managing director and pilot Dave Kershaw located the men on the ridge line of the northern face of Mt Soho at an altitude of 1200m at 8pm.
Shortly after collecting the men, the helicopter picked up another man from the paragliding company who was climbing the mountain looking for the pair.
Soon after, the helicopter pilot spotted another two men - also from the same company - climbing the mountain looking for the same pair, and stopped to pick them up before returning to Queenstown in the dark.
Mr Kershaw said that with no road access near the mountain, it was clear the company had known the men's location and plight well before the alarm was raised.
"People just leave these things to the last moment. It's a real pain in the butt."
The pair, who were dressed in sweatshirts and polar fleeces, were ill equipped for a cold night on the mountain, he said.
