Tauranga Deputy Mayor David Stewart feels the health scare at Auckland International Airport involving a group of students travelling to the city from Japan was surprising, but necessary.

He met with the 83 teenagers from Hitachi today after the group arrived in Tauranga last night following a dramatic entrance into the country.

Deputy Mayor David Stewart seated in front of the city's 83 teenage guests from Japan.

The 83 17-year-old boys, and their eight adult chaperones, were detained onboard flight NZ90 from Nariti in Tokyo on Monday after health authorities were altered the group may be suffering from flu-like symptoms.

Aviation Security Services, working in conjunction with the Auckland Public Health Board, boarded the Boeing 777-200 after it touched down at 9.20am.

The students were kept on the plane for 90 minutes before being moved to a waiting room while health authorities investigated. They were released just after 12.30pm.

David says it was 'interesting” to see how the Public Health authorities reacted to the scare.

'What we saw yesterday could be seen as an over-reaction by some people, but it shows that our health authorities are able to respond quickly and efficiently.

'It was handled well, although it was a surprise.

'Incidents like that will be valued going into the future, we can learn from what happened.”

David says people should feel a sense of security that the borders of the country are being protected from all threats including diseases.

'Obviously there were some concerns there were people suffering from flu-like symptoms, and the health authorities jumped into action pretty quickly.”

Today the group met with David at the Tauranga City Council chambers before going on to complete a tour of the city.

Director of Let's Homestay Stuart Cundy, the school's host, says the students were in shock at the level of response from health officials.

'I couldn't believe the effort that went into what happened. I do feel it was a bit over-exaggerated.”

He says all of the students are healthy, although a few have 'sniffy noses” after coming from winter in Japan.

'There was not even a sign of any coughing.”

Stuart waited three hours for the students to come through the terminal at the airport and says there was one announcement about the situation about 40 minutes after the plane landed.

'That is when you expect them to start coming through. We do trouble-shoot these kinds of situations and have procedures in place to deal with them.”

Stuart says all of the students coped well and are now enjoying their time in Tauranga.

'There needs to be faith in the health authorities and people should understand that once the green light is given there is no further threat.”

The 91 Japanese visitors are visiting Maungatapu and Matua Primary School tomorrow before spending a day at Mount Maunganui College on Thursday.

The visit from the Hitachi Technical School in Hitachi, Japan, is an annual event run by Greerton homestay organisation Let's Homestay.