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Clearing weather has allowed a helicopter to join the search for a Australian man possibly missing somewhere near Westland's Copland track.
The 62-year-old - an experienced climber and tramper - has been missing for three weeks, Constable Barrie Greenall said.
His locked Toyota Surf 4WD was reported to police by a concerned Department of Conservation Ranger on Monday.
At this stage, police were not conducting a ground search, Mr Greenall said.
"Because it is over 500 square kilometres of bush, it is too big an area for a conventional search," he said.
Instead, the helicopter was flying a circuit of the back country huts, with searchers checking hut logbooks to see if the missing man had passed through.
The round trip was expected to take about three hours.
"It may well be that he is not in the hills at all," he said.
Police were waiting to hear back from the man's family in Australia before they released his name and photograph.
- NZPA
