Police haven't informed victims' families whose bodies they believe were recovered from White Island on Friday and who remains missing.
Forty-seven people were on Whakaari / White Island last Monday when the volcano erupted, leading to the deaths of at least 16 people and injuring more than 30 others. Twenty-four are believed to have been Australians, with others from the United Kingdom and the USA.
On Friday, the elite SAS unit E Squadron ventured to the unpredictable island in an attempt to bring back eight bodies which had not been recovered.
The eight-member unit was only able to find six of the missing, with one body understood to be in the water surrounding the island and the other unaccounted for.
Police and Navy dive squads have spent Saturday searching around Whakaari, but efforts have so far been unsuccessful.
Speaking to Newshub, police deputy commissioner Mike Clements said it was possible the second remaining body was also in the ocean if it had fallen into a watercourse heading towards the sea.
Reflecting on Friday's operation, which police have frequently admitted was risky due to the chance of a further eruption, Clements said it was good to have six bodies back, but officials would persevere to get the other two.
"Six out of eight is great. But if you are the next of kind of the two, then you are not too happy, and I don't blame them, nor would I be," he told Newshub.
There was speculation - spurred on by the Australian Foreign Minister - that the six brought back were all Australians, leaving the two missing Kiwi guides.
But Clements said he is yet to inform families of who the recovered bodies could belong to, as not to create false hope.
"I have cautioned against doing this. I understand completely the need for people to know. If it was me, I would be exactly the same, I would want to know," he said.
"It would be most unfair to lead someone to believe something to be true, only to be told later that it is not. That is just not fair. How traumatising would that be.
"It is difficult to sit there and ask [the families] to be patients, [but] we know from experience, not only from here in New Zealand but globally, getting this wrong is worse than asking someone to be patient."
One of the Kiwis who was believed to have been remaining on the island was Hayden Marshall-Inman. He was a guide with White Island tours, whose brother called early in the police operation for officials to head back to the island and recover the missing.
The bodies recovered from Whakaari / White Island have been taken to Auckland for the post mortem and disaster victim identification process.
"The victims and their families are our priority but we also have important obligations.
"We must work on behalf of the Coroner to ensure correct identification," said Deputy Commissioner John Tims, National Operations Commander.
"It would be unforgivable to get the identification process wrong."
There are five stages to the victim identification process:
Phase 1: Scene
The deceased are examined and documented, then taken to the mortuary.
Phase 2: Mortuary
The body is examined by a pathologist, forensic dentist, fingerprint officer and Police DVI team.
Personal effects such as jewellery, clothing are photographed, then collected, examined, cleaned, re-photographed and secured.
Phase 3: Ante-mortem Information retrieval
Ante-mortem retrieval is when information is brought in about a missing person from the outside.
Police gather information about possible victims, such as descriptions of appearance, clothing, jewellery, photos medical and dental records, x-rays fingerprints, and DNA samples.
Phase 4: Reconciliation
Information from post-mortem and ante-mortem phases are brought together to find a match.
At an identification hearing, the Coroner is presented evidence of the match by fingerprint, dentistry, DNA and Police DVI experts and decides if identification has been established.
Family and/or foreign authorities are advised, then media.
Phase 5: Debrief
People involved in the DVI process keep each other updated throughout all stages.
Support and welfare is made available to staff including stress and grief counsellors, chaplains, Victim Support and Police Welfare officers.
