Sam Masters had been living in Canberra since 2012 and moved to Australia in 2007. He was due to return to New Zealand in January but never left Australia.

His family became concerned when he did not return and when they did not hear from him. He was last seen in Florey by his former work colleagues on February 12.

Sam’s father, Wayne, said the discovery of his son was "magnificent news" and his family were "absolutely rapt".

"Everybody here breathed a sigh of relief when they heard the news," he said.

While Sam was found safe and well, his father said he was “not in the best space at the moment and being around his family is the best thing for him”.

“He’s been living rough for longer than we realised and we need to build some support around him and get him back to where he should be,” he said.

Wayne said he hadn’t seen his son for 18 months and wasn’t able to detail what he had been doing in Canberra for the last year.

He said the family had made several efforts to locate Sam in previous months but had struggled to find any useful information.

“He was so far away from his traditional community in New Zealand that nobody had any valuable information – he was way under the radar,” he said.

Wayne said he was grateful for the “massive effort coordinated by local police” and praised their support of his son and their communication with family members.

Mr Masters was found by a group of ACT emergency services volunteers who were scheduled to complete a planned search and rescue training operation with police supervision on Wednesday.

When intelligence of Mr Masters whereabouts was obtained, the group of volunteers were tasked to the area to provide assistance to police operations.

Sam is set to fly to Wellington on Thursday to reunite with his family, who live a few hours north of the city.

"He'll make his way here after a good meal and a shower on Wednesday night," said his father.