By a stroke of luck Southern Lakes Helicopters has already found a replacement to the twin-engine helicopter lost in a crash near the sub-Antarctic Islands last month.

Next week Southern Lakes Helicopters expects its new BK-117 helicopter will be operational for medical calls and other jobs.

Southern Lakes Helicopters operations manager Lloyd Matheson said the helicopter came from Napier, where it was used as an emergency rescue helicopter before a controversial nationwide shake-up to air ambulance services last year. 

The previous owner lost the bid for the new contract, which consolidated medical services across the country, putting a helicopter fully fitted for new medical requirements on the market. 

Other operators within the industry contacted Southern Lakes Helicopters after the accident letting them know the aircraft was available.

It was fully fitted out to the same specifications as the aircraft lost at the Auckland Islands, Mr Matheson said.

"We're just lucky that this one was in New Zealand. We had been looking at overseas aircraft."

Southern Lakes had two twin-engine helicopters prior to last month's accident. However, the other chopper does not meet specifications for medical calls, a task Mr Matheson said would have taken at least four months to complete.

The new BK-117 is from the same manufacturer, but with a different engine configuration and more horsepower.

Generous fundraising support, that extended beyond Fiordland, was already helping to fill in the gaps with the remaining pieces of the new aircraft that either wouldn't be covered by insurance or still hadn't been paid out.

That included a more than $10,000 stretcher that didn't come with the new chopper. Some community funding would also go towards a $27,000 defibrillator lost in the crash, as well as winch operator harnesses and personal locator beacons.

"We're just not sure what sort of full insurance cover we're going to get at the finish, so the community fundraising that's gone on has gone a long way to help just to get this up and running so that we can provide a [service]."

Mr Matheson re-iterated that Southern Lakes Helicopters was "absolutely humbled" with the funding support from the community. 

"It's like they own it (the helicopter). And certainly when the prang happened, the whole community was down and of course when the guys were rescued, the whole bloody atmosphere just changed in town."