UPDATED 8.09AM The second man to walk on the moon is now getting treatment in Christchurch after an emergency evacuation from Antarctica.

Buzz Aldrin's condition deteriorated while he was at the South Pole with a private tourism company.

At one stage the 86-year-old was described as ailing.

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The tourism company, White Desert, says he has fluid in his lungs but is stable and responding to antibiotics.

His manager is with him at Christchurch Hospital.

Aldrin was put first on a ski-equipped Hercules plane from the Pole to America's McMurdo Station.

From there he was put on a cargo plane to New Zealand, and that landed just before 4.30 this morning.

The National Science Foundation in the US oversaw the evacuation flight at the request of White Desert.

Pictures from TVNZ show Mr Aldrin walking with help from the plane in Christchurch and taken away in an ambulance.

He was later seen being pushed in a wheelchair.

A former fighter pilot, Aldrin stepped on the moon about 20 minutes after Neil Armstrong took the historic first step on July 20, 1969.

Their moonwalk as part of the Apollo 11 lunar landing was watched by a then- record television audience of 600 million people.