Prime Minister Helen Clark left a remote mountain hut late last night so she could spend time with the widow of her close friend and mountain guide Gottlieb Braun-Elwert who died on a backcountry trip yesterday.
Mr Braun-Elwert, 59, suffered a heart attack on the tramping trip with Miss Clark, her husband Peter Davis and others, including Cabinet Ministers Damien O'Connor and David Parker in the Lake Tekapo region.
Miss Clark and her party yesterday spent two hours unsuccessfully trying to resuscitate father-of-two Mr Braun-Elwert.
Poor weather blocked initial attempts to reach the party yesterday, butpolice and search and rescue volunteers reached the hut at Mt Gerald Station in the Two Thumbs range near Tekapo about 8pm yesterday. Miss Clark and Mr O'Connor left the remote hut late last night by snowmobile and four-wheel-drive.
Mr Braun-Elwert's widow Ann Braun-Elwert today said Miss Clark had made the treacherous night-time trip in order to spend time with her.
"She made a special effort to come out in the dark last night. (It was) probably a bit scary coming down the mountain in the snow, partially on a skidoo," she said on Radio New Zealand.
"So she made a special effort to get back." The pair had stayed together until quite late and Miss Clark remained in Tekapo this morning.
Mrs Braun-Elwert said the body of her husband was still at the hut along with the five other members of Miss Clark's party.
Police expected to try and helicopter them out today.
Mrs Braun-Elwert said her husband had died doing what he loved, but a heart attack was the last thing she would have thought the extremely fit and active man would have died from.
She said Miss Clark was such a regular client of her husband they referred to her as their "pet client".
Rescue guide Dave Crowe today told Radio New Zealand Mr Braun-Elwert had not been feeling well yesterday. Within 30 minutes of returning to the hut he collapsed.
Mr Crowe said the party had done all they could to try and save him. He said his death was a great loss to the mountain guiding community.
St John ambulance service yesterday said it received a call from Mt Gerald at 3.53pm.
Mr Braun-Elwert, who owned the Mt Gerald hut, ran his own business, Alpine Recreation, at Lake Tekapo.
He had guided Miss Clark and Professor Davis more than a dozen times, on either cross-country skiing or climbing expeditions in New Zealand, South America and other countries.
In 2004, he took Miss Clark and Dr Davis on a four-day ski touring trip.
Miss Clark had to abandon a summit bid on Aconcagua in the Andes, with Mr Braun-Elwert in 2001, because of bad weather and a fellow climber's illness.
They had crossed New Zealand's highest guided pass, the 2105m Ball Pass on the Mount Cook Range, together the previous year, and later climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak.