The Taranaki climbers set off their emergency locator beacon at 10.35pm on Tuesday after a 57-year-old man in the group fell and suffered chest injuries.
The other members of the group were the man's wife and a climber believed to be the man's son.
It is understood the group had climbed Mt Aspiring and were descending when the man fell, in an area known as the ''quarter deck'', above the French Ridge Hut on the lower part of the Bonar Glacier.
A Southern Lakes helicopter with pilot, winch operator and two rescue team volunteers on board flew to the scene from Wanaka about 1am yesterday. However, Wanaka SAR co-ordinator Sergeant Aaron Nicholson told the Otago Daily Times
low cloud was ''coming and going'', making conditions unsuitable for landing.
The rescue team was dropped at another location, below French Ridge hut, and then set out to climb to the group of climbers, reaching them about 6am.
Sergeant Nicholson said the injured man possibly had concussion and was unable to help himself down the mountain, and his wife was starting to get into difficulties because of the cold.
''Their adult son seemed to cope with the conditions better,'' Sergeant Nicholson said.
Another rescue team flew to the area about 7.50am in preparation for the group to be rescued on foot. However, ''a little weather window'' allowed the helicopter to pick up the climbers and fly them to the Wanaka Medical Centre.
Sergeant Nicholson said the rescue spot was ''an unusual place to be at 10.30 at night''.
The rescue team made ''an extraordinary effort'' to reach the climbers yesterday in ''really, really, unpleasant weather'', he said.
''Visibility was really poor, it was quite cold, they were sort of all rimed up on one side with snow.''
Sergeant Nicholson said police were impressed with the efforts of the rescue team and it was ''good to know'' a rescue could have been carried out without the assistance of a helicopter.
About 2am on August 24, West Coast climber Ari Ross Kingan (21) died in a fall on The Ramp while descending Mt Aspiring.
An experienced climbing guide fell 20m down a slope while guiding two clients near Aoraki/Mt Cook yesterday morning.
Police said the guide radioed for help after she fell on a moderate slope on Aylmer Col and could no longer bear weight on one of her legs. Her two clients were uninjured.
The guide was airlifted to Mt Cook village for assessment and then flown to Christchurch Hospital for treatment for a leg injury.
