New Zealand police believe that two Australian and four British tourists were killed, along with the pilot, when a helicopter crashed on Fox Glacier on the west coast of the South Island. 
Tasman Police say formal identification will take some time and New Zealand authorities are liaising with both the Australian and British embassies.
Emergency services said weather conditions were too bad for crews to reach the scene to recover the bodies.
Police confirmed on Saturday afternoon all seven people on board were killed.
Inspector John Canning said the helicopter was in a crevasse 750 metres up the valley. Debris was scattered hundreds of metres around the crash site. The recovery would be very difficult in the dangerous terrain, he said.
"I'm not going to risk any more lives, we've lost seven," he said.
Mitch Gameren, 28, was at the joystick. He had attended the funeral on Friday of a fellow helicopter pilot and childhood friend, who died of cancer in Queenstown.
He was passionate about flying and had racked up almost 3000 flying hours around the world, including for a safari operator in Botswana and more recently as a Medevac pilot in Malaysia.
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said her sympathies were with the families of those killed. "We have spoken to the two [Australian] families concerned," she said.
Officers were trying to locate crash victims' next of kin. Earlier, four choppers responded to the crash site. One paramedic and a rescuer were winched down to the scene.
Vince Cholewa, from the rescue centre, said two choppers had flown from Christchurch, one from Greymouth and one from Fox Glacier, with a cliff rescue team on board.
Mr Cholewa described the area as "heavily crevassed".
Glacier Country Tourism Group member Chris Alexander said emergency services had tried "their damnedest" to reach the scene.
There was cloud and rain in the area where the crash occurred, MetService said.
New Zealand's Transport Accident Investigation Commission has opened an inquiry into the accident.
Media are reporting the vehicle was a single-engine Eurocopter Squirrel helicopter.
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