Police staff, the Taupo Greenlea Rescue helicopter and crew, St John Ambulance, and 12 members of the Ruapehu Alpine Rescue Organisation worked together to locate the missing four.
As the ice on the mountain was extremely hard, the four could only be rescued by helicopter, Constable Conrad Smith, of National Park Police said.
"At this time of the evening darkness had well set in and we managed to locate the party of four using night vision goggles."
Cloud initially made it difficult for the four to be reached by air, but it cleared enough for the helicopter to get to them.
"To give an idea of how solid the ice was, one of the rescuers who assisted the four people off the Mountain, used their ice axe to attempt to anchor themselves, however this twisted completely out of shape and was unusable.
"This was a very technical rescue with significant risks and the highly skilled rescue team did a fantastic job given the conditions," Constable Smith said.
"There was no doubt that the four people would have unlikely made it to the morning given how cold it was and the wind chill was well below zero."
All eight members of the party were seen by ambulance staff and the injured four received medical treatment.
"Unfortunately the party of eight were not experienced, unprepared for the elements, and were using gear that was not suitable for the conditions.
"I can't stress enough that being properly prepared could save your life.
"Winter is here and winter alpine conditions can be dangerous, and its paramount that the correct gear and experience is required to go with that environment," said Constable Smith.
NZME. eo pd
