Forty volunteers from Tauranga are joining a major search for two missing men in the Kaimanawa forest in the central North Island.
The pair led police on a chase in a stolen car on Saturday before running into the bush, and then made a desperate call to 111 asking for help on Sunday.
Alongside police, the volunteers will be doing a grid search in the area where items of clothing and the remnants of a campfire were found.
Due to weather conditions, there will be no helicopter joining the search on Tuesday.
Police operations manager Kevin Taylor said "They have phoned the police communications centre expressing concerns - the fact they're lost, they're cold and one of them was unresponsive.
"We've been able to locate a position through GPS in the phone but unfortunately they were not at that location when we put search teams in the bush."
The two men have now spent three nights in the bush and it is believed they will be hypothermic.
Police said neither man has experience in such rugged conditions and were dressed in jeans and cotton shirts when they fled.
Mr Taylor said "The longer these young men remain in these conditions, the less likely it is that they will survive. However, today we still remain determined and hopeful that we will find them alive."
Newshub.
