Police have captured two high-risk offenders who absconded from a residential facility last week and have been hiding in Arthur's Pass National Park with an associate.
The three were found by a police team shortly after midday on Tuesday and arrested without incident.
Detective Inspector Tom Fitzgerald said the men were in the bush near the Hawdon Shelter, not far from where a vehicle belonging to one of the men was located on Monday.
The men will be taken to Christchurch and held in custody.
They will appear in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday morning.
Ivan Andrew Campbell, 46, who has a history of sex convictions, and Jaydon Galland, 18, absconded from the Salisbury Foundation last Wednesday. They were later joined by Jamie Campbell, 25.
Earlier, police said it was likely the trio were in the area around Klondyke Corner, a popular place for trampers and hunting.
AAP reports Campbell was paroled to live at the foundation in June after serving 11 years in prison for holding a boy captive in a cupboard for seven days of sadistic sex.
He was jailed in 1991 for a similar attack on another boy and received a prison term in Australia in 1996 for arson at a Salvation Army hostel at Beaudesert, southwest of Brisbane.
The Greymouth Star reports Galland was a regular defendant in Greymouth District Court since he turned 17.
He had been sentenced to intensive supervision and electronic monitoring at the Salisbury Street Foundation following a history of taking cars, careless driving, wilful damage, assaulting police and cannabis charges.
