About 50 searchers, a helicopter, and a bloodhound tracking dog are combing the Otanewainuku Forest south of Tauranga for two trekkers who have spent two nights in the bush.
The search will focus on an area where a bootprint was found this morning, although it is not yet known whether the print was made by one of the missing men.
Ross Wilson, aged 71, of Tauranga, and Ed Hamer, 69, of Mairangi Bay, were due out of the rugged hill country inland from Oropi on Saturday afternoon after a daytime tramp.
Three trampers told police they had spoken to the men on Saturday afternoon and all was well then, search coordinator Senior Sergeant Lyn Manning said.
The two friends were fit but had little food or drink and no warm clothes.
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