A 39-year-old man is dead after accidentally falling in the Mt Ruapehu Crater Lake.
The Taupo resident was reported missing on Friday night when he did not return home after skiing at Whakapapa ski field on Mt Ruapehu.
Initial inquiries confirmed the man's car was in the ski field carpark but he could not be located.
Due to bad weather at the time, no searches of the mountain were able to be conducted that night.
Early on Saturday morning ground teams and helicopters were used to carry out a search of the mountain.