Hikers with children located in Kahurangi National Park two hours after search alert

Kahurangi is the country's second largest national park and in places is an untracked wilderness. Above, Cobb lake in Kahurangi National Park. Photo / 123RF

A group of hikers, including children, have been located after a search was launched in the Kahurangi National Park earlier today.

A police spokeswoman told the Herald the group had been found "safe and well" around 7.30pm, over two hours since they were reported missing.

The spokeswoman earlier said a report about the group came in around 5.25pm. Police arrived on the scene near Onekaka around 5.50pm.

Onekaka is located in Golden Bay, northwest of Nelson, near the northwestern extremity of the South Island.

MetService reports the weather for nearby Takaka is rain with not much wind, meanwhile, tomorrow showers and little wind are expected.

Kahurangi is the country's second largest national park and in places is an untracked wilderness, according to the Department of Conservation.

Elsewhere, a network of tracks wind through "wild rivers, high plateaux and alpine herbfields, and coastal forests."