22-year-old Rachel Lloyd from North Carolina was suffering from hypothermia and undernourishment by the time she and her 47-year-old mother, Carolyn, were airlifted to safety.
The pair were found and taken to Wellington Hospital after rescue teams spotted large "help" signs they had built from fern fronds.
What was intended as a one-day hiking trip in the Tararua Forest Park turned into a five-day ordeal when Rachel and Carolyn became lost while making their decent from the park's summit.
The mother and daughter rationed their food and lay atop one another for warmth at night.
Rachel, who was spending a term studying abroad at Massey University in Palmerston North, become seriously ill after falling headfirst into icy water and hitting her head.
Speaking in hospital, she said: "That's when I started going downhill. I could never get dry and couldn't get warm the rest of the trip."
"...it was very scary. I was trying to stay positive, and constantly praying, asking God to be with us."
"I'm feeling so, so much better. I've gotten a lot of food into me, I'm eating all the time, and just hearing my father's voice, and my brother's voice. On both sides of the equator, everyone's support and love has been so overwhelming."