Police have recovered four bodies from a Cessna aircraft after wreckage was found in rough terrain near Wanaka today.
They received a call from a helicopter pilot who spotted the wreckage of the Cessna on a rock bluff, near the Motatapu River around midday.
Police inspector Olaf Jensen said the location where the plane crashed was hard to get to.
"It's obviously in a remote mountainous terrain, that's in a bluff area where the crash has occurred so it's quite trying conditions where the rescue teams are working."
Mr Jensen said the plane crashed on a rock face.
He said the bodies had been removed and taken to Wanaka, where a formal identification process would be initiated.