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Prime Minister Helen Clark has described the "harrowing" ordeal in which she and ministers tried in vain to save the life of their friend and climbing guide Gottlieb Braun-Elwert.
Helen Clark is now safe in the town of Tekapo after she and her fellow trampers fought to revive Mr Braun-Elwert, 59, who was believed to have suffered a heart attack yesterday.
The group were tramping in mountains near Lake Tekapo in Canterbury and in the Rex Simpson Hut in the Two Thumb Range when Mr Braun-Elwert - who owned the hut - collapsed.
"It's just a terrible thing to see one of your old friends pass away like that," Helen Clark said at a media conference today.
"It was very harrowing but everybody rose to the occasion and we just threw everything we could at trying to help and trying to get support in.
"But unfortunately with weather like that you just can't get the helicopter in."
'Last thing expected'
Mr Braun-Elwert's wife Anne praised the Prime Minister and the rest of the party for their valiant efforts in trying to save her husband.
"They did a fantastic job. They tried everything they could doing CPR for two and a half hours, which is pretty harrowing."
Mrs Braun-Elwert said her husband had enjoyed a long association with the Prime Minister, accompanying her on 13 trips, mostly cross-country skiing.
Her husband came to New Zealand in 1976 as a hitch-hiker and quickly fell in love with the country, becoming heavily involved in the guiding industry and in conservation.
"I feel very privileged to have had him as a husband and two wonderful daughters who he adores."
Mrs Braun-Elwert said it still seemed unclear what killed her husband although it was assumed to be a heart attack.
"We don't really know what the real cause is. We are just guessing it's a heart attack. He's such a fit, strong man, it's the last thing I thought would have taken him."
Tragedy
Helen Clark said her party - which included ministers Damien O'Connor and David Parker, her husband Peter Davis and her niece - had just enjoyed two beautiful days of skiing and had two more days planned when Mr Braun-Elwert suddenly collapsed while in the hut yesterday afternoon.
"That's how sudden it was. You go from a happy afternoon skiing to someone just not being with you," the Prime Minister said.
Helen Clark saw Mr Braun-Elwert collapse but said ultimately nothing could be done.
"I think Gottlieb probably went pretty quickly, I saw him fall. We got him in and got him comfortable but I think it happened pretty fast.
"We kept up the CPR and mouth-to-mouth for a long time but eventually people advised us to stop."
Helen Clark said the tragedy put things into perspective amid a tense election campaign.
"In the end, your health and family and friends are the most important."
She said she would return to the mountains again "it's just a tragedy Gottlieb won't be there".
Helen Clark described Mr Braun Elwert as one of the most incredible people she had ever met.
He had introduced her to ski touring and mountaineering "we had just so many happy trips with him and got to know Anne [Mr Braun-Elwert's wife] and their children".
Helen Clark said Mr Braun-Elwert had been suffering a bit of a bug last week but felt well enough to go on the trip "he was a bit slower than usual but he was in good spirits".
After hours of CPR involving all of the party it became clear that Mr Braun-Elwert could not be revived, she said.
Search and Rescue volunteers and a police search and rescue squad, including a St John advanced paramedic, were understood to have reached the hut, on Mt Gerald Station, last night.
Helen Clark was transported out last night by snow mobile along with Damien O'Connor to help support Mr Braun-Elwert's grieving family.
The remaining members of her party have since been choppered out and Mr Braun-Elwert's body is in Tekapo where his wife and Helen Clark are staying.
A police officer and mountain guide stayed with the group last night.
Inspector Dave Gaskin said the weather had cleared enough to make an attempt to pick them up this morning.
Difficult rescue
Senior Constable Brent Swanson said Helen Clark was "fine" when she returned to the township after coming out of the back country.
"Her and her party did an extremely good job in trying to revive the deceased," Mr Swanson said.
He said the hut was well equipped for an overnight stay and the party members had been in good spirits.
Mr Swanson said the death of Mr Braun-Elwert, a highly respected mountain guide and member of the Tekapo community, had come as a great shock.
The St John Ambulance Service said it received an emergency cellphone call from the party at 3.53pm.
It sent the Westpac rescue helicopter from Christchurch, with a paramedic on board, to Tekapo, but neither it nor another local helicopter operator was able to reach the site because of bad weather.
Members of the party carried out CPR on Mr Braun-Elwert for about three hours until ambulance staff advised them to stop.
A Beehive spokesman said: "The Prime Minister and Peter Davis are deeply shocked and saddened by the sudden tragic death, and their thoughts are with the family."
The Prime Minister holidays in the area every year, and has often tramped with Mr Braun-Elwert.
He had guided her more than a dozen times, on cross-country skiing or climbing expeditions in New Zealand, South America and other countries.
Gottlieb Braun-Elwert
Mr Braun-Elwert's wife, Anne, was at their Tekapo home last. With her was her sister, Stella Sweeney, who spoke to the Herald about her brother-in-law.
"I've done a lot of trips with Gottlieb," she said. "He was the most amazing mountain guide. He would extend you to achieve things that you never thought you could achieve otherwise - a really amazing person."
She said mountaineering had been "his life for a very long time".
Mr Braun-Elwert was a professional mountain guide for 34 years. He migrated to New Zealand in 1978.
He had his own business, Alpine Recreation, at Lake Tekapo.
He was the first person to climb all New Zealand's 3000m peaks in a single winter season.
His other notable climbing achievements included making the first ascent of the entire Peuterey Ridge of Mont Blanc in 1973, a 1993 winter ascent of Cerro Fitz Roy (Supercanaleta) in Patagonia, three winter crossings of the Patagonian ice cap in 1994, 1995 and 1996, 26 ascents of Mt Cook and eight ascents of Mt Tasman.
Mr Braun-Elwert was also a nuclear physicist.
He had an master of science degree in nuclear physics, and was a founding member of a "physics and ecology" workshop at the University of Munich.
The group researched the interrelation of energy consumption, population density, and environmental impact.
He was a member of the New Zealand Alpine Club, the German Alpine Club, the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society and the Canterbury-Aoraki Conservation Board.
He pioneered many ski touring routes in Europe and was one of New Zealand's leading climbers and guides.
He served on the first round of a ministerial reference group on public access to waterways and rural backcountry.
His interests also included nature photography and filming.
He campaigned to have "natural quiet" recognised as a resource which needed to be protected, particularly where it was threatened by helicopter noise.
His wife shared his love of adventure, and was a co-director of Alpine Recreation.
She climbed Mt Cook in winter, and joined her husband on ski tours, tramping trips and on two Patagonian ski traverses.
Their daughters, Carla and Elke, are professional ski instructors.
At the age of 14 each girl in turn became the youngest person to climb Mt Cook.
