A young kiwi bird has been rescued after adventuring into the snowy highlands of South Westland

The rare rowi kiwi named Aroha was one of 27 juveniles released into an area near Fox Glacier last year.

DOC biodiversity ranger Iain Graham says while some have barely travelled a few hundred metres from the release point, Aroha - a lowland Kiwi - travelled more than 12 kilometres, to an elevation of over 12-hundred metres.

But she got stuck on a cliff face, and had to be rescued.

Rangers called in the Alpine Cliff Rescue Team, who treated the rescue mission as a training exercise and found Aroha stuck on a small ledge surrounded by bluffs.