KEY POINTS:
Searchers hunting privately for missing Israeli tourist Liat Okin have found footprints on the Routeburn Track that appear to match her small shoe size.
The find on Tuesday was the first possible sign of 35-year-old Ms Okin since she disappeared while walking the track alone on March 26.
Ms Okin's brother, Itamar Tas, who has organised a private search since the official search was suspended on April 22, said the footprints led away from the track, down a difficult slope towards the Hollyford Valley, midway between the Mackenzie and Routeburn Falls huts.
Mr Tas said the footprints were a similar size to Ms Okin's and appeared to match the sneakers she was believed to have been wearing when she vanished, although the exact shoe type was unknown.
"They were found in a place where there shouldn't be any footprints," Mr Tas told the Otago Daily Times newspaper.
"If you didn't make a big mistake you wouldn't get there. Nobody actually walks there, usually," he said.
The tracks were found late on Tuesday by a member of the volunteer search team that has been scouring the rough terrain since the police-led search was called off.
Worsening weather on Tuesday meant searchers were forced to abandon the area without completing a full search.
Mr Tas said foul weather since then had postponed the search.
It was hoped searchers could return this weekend to the area where the footprints were found to examine them and the surrounding area in more detail.
Though Ms Okin has been missing now for some 42 days, Mr Tas said he still hoped for "a miracle".
- NZPA
