Members of the public were taught the procedure by eight Queenstown and Kingston ambulance officers as part of St John's "encouragement of community resilience", operations team manager Alana Reid said.
Participants were given a free pack containing a pillow slip, which gave CPR instructions on an outline of an upper torso, then practised the life-saving technique to the tune of Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees.
Ms Reid said it was a song people could remember and it had about 100 beats a minute, which was the recommended number of chest compressions a minute for CPR.
"It's a fun way of spending their lunch break and learning something they may use," Ms Reid said.
"The more people trained the better - 60% of cardiac arrests happen when the patient is with someone they know," she said.
The training session was accompanied by a sausage sizzle run by five ASB bank staff, which raised about $300.
The event was the launch of the nationwide Flash a Light for St John appeal in the resort.
St John Wakatipu wanted to beat last year's total of $3000, which went towards operating costs.
To perform CPR:
• Call 111 for an ambulance.
• Lie the person on their back.
• Push on the chest hard and fast 30 times at a rate of about twice a second.
• Keep your arms straight and push in the middle of the chest. This is the most important part of CPR.
• Tilt the head back, pinch the nose and blow twice in the mouth.
• Continue to alternate 30 pushes on the chest with two blows in the mouth until an ambulance arrives.
• Any CPR is better than no CPR. If you do not want to do the breaths, just continue with the chest pushes.
Source: St John
