A 67-year-old hunter was airlifted to Rotorua Hospital after becoming ill in remote bush on the shore of Lake Tarawera yesterday.

The Rotorua based BayTrust Rescue helicopter was dispatched shortly after 12.30pm when a fellow hunter raised the alarm requesting immediate medical help.

Rescue helicopter pilot Ben Fry says the helicopter were dispatched to a location just east of Hot Water Beach on the southern edge of Lake Tarawera.

'The man was part of a group of three who had boated across the lake to go for a wee hunt,” says Ben. 'They actually hadn't gone in too far when one of the guys started to really struggle.”

Because the man 'didn't have enough steam in him” to walk out, a member of the group returned to their vessel and boated into the middle of the lake until he had mobile service and called 111.

Ben says because of the location's thick bush and trees they had to winch down an advanced Paramedic to the hunter's location with equipment and eventually stabilised the man.

'We were going to winch the man back out but once the paramedic got him stabilised he managed to walk back to where the boat was moored, which brought him to where we landed the helicopter.

'He was certainly in a bad way when we arrived but was quite stable by the time we got him to the helicopter and hospital.”

Ben says the group of three hunters were quite an experienced group of guys and 'certainly did everything by the book which is great”.

Philips Search and Rescue Trust is a charitable organisation, operating rescue helicopters throughout the Central North Island.

For further more information about Phillips Search and Rescue Trust visit their website at http://rescue.org.nz