Members of the Prime Minister's climbing party who remained in a hut in back country Canterbury after a member of their group died, are being flown off the mountain.
Mountain guide, Gottlieb Braun-Elwert, 59, suffered a suspected heart attack on Thursday, during a trip near Lake Tekapo.
Police say an emergency call was received from the Two Thumbs range, where the group - including Helen Clark, her husband, her niece and cabinet ministers David Parker and Damien O'Connor - was holidaying.
Miss Clark and Mr O'Connor were driven from the hut on snowmobile, so the Prime Minister could spend time with Mr Braun-Elwitt's widow, Anne.
Inspector Dave Gaskin says a helicopter took off at 10.07am to bring them to Tekapo.
Well known climber
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister says she is shocked and distressed at the sudden death of a close friend.
Mr Braun-Elwert took trips with Miss Clark for the last 11 years. He was regarded as a pinnacle of the climbing community for nearly three decades.
He emigrated from Germany in 1978 where he worked as a nuclear physicist.
He made his base in Lake Tekapo where he began a mountain guiding company with his wife Anne, in 1981.
Mr Braun-Elwert climbed Mt Cook 26 times. In 1989, he climbed all of New Zealand's peaks over 3000m in one winter.
