Searchers looking for missing hunter Alan Hill have been unable to use a RNZAF helicopter in the search due to terrible weather conditions. File photo / NZ Herald
Searchers looking for missing hunter Alan Hill have been unable to use a RNZAF helicopter in the search due to terrible weather conditions. File photo / NZ Herald
Search teams are battling wild weather in an attempt to find an elderly possum trapper who has been missing in remote North Canterbury bush for nearly a week.
Alan Hill, 83, has not been seen since he went into the Ashley Gorge area, northwest of Christchurch, last Wednesday morning.
Hewas not equipped to spend the night in the open and police have said it was unlikely he would be found alive.
Search teams scoured the area again today in "atrocious weather", a spokesman for the Ashley Gorge Holiday Park, where the rescue team is based, told NZPA.
Rescue teams will return to the area tomorrow to continue the search, the spokesman said.
Snow has been forecast for the area for the next few days, according to WeatherWatch.
Today searchers concentrated on an area of the route Mr Hill used to gain access to his trapping line.
Search coordinator Sergeant Ryan O'Rourke said conditions in the area were extremely windy, preventing the use of an air force helicopter.
Today's search area was lower down the mountainous terrain and could be accessed by search teams on foot, he said.
About 25 police and land search and rescue personnel, including four dog teams, joined the search today.
