Temperatures inside the Pike River coal mine are slowly dropping but levels of explosive gas are still too high for recovery teams to enter.
Twenty-nine men died in a series of explosions that began deep in the mine on 19 November.
A team of police, Department of Conservation personnel and gas experts continue to work around the clock with a GAG machine and a Floxal nitrogen generator.
Police say the temperatures, which reached 600 degrees at times, continue to drop, but there is still a high risk of further explosions.
