Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, is "recovering well" in a New Zealand hospital after being evacuated from the South Pole.

Aldrin, 86, was on a sightseeing tour of Antarctica with his son Andrew when his health "deteriorated".

He was flown from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station to McMurdo Station and from there to Christchurch.

Travel company White Desert said the former US astronaut had fluid in his lungs but was responding well to antibiotics.

His manager Christina Korp, who accompanied him to New Zealand, said he was in good spirits.


Image: The 86-year-old was on a private tour when he fell ill

She posted images of Aldrin on Twitter, smiling in a hospital bed with an oxygen tube in his nose.

"We wish Buzz a speedy recovery," White Desert said in a statement.

Just three weeks ago, Aldrin was at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida for the unveiling of a new astronaut exhibit.

Ahead of his Antarctic venture, he wrote about the trip and posted several pictures on his Twitter account.

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

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

Aldrin has criss-crossed the world in recent years, pressing for human exploration of Mars and promoting space and science education.

His latest book, No Dream Is Too High: Life Lessons from a Man who Walked on the Moon, came out in April.