A missing hunter survived a 50-metre fall by clutching at a tree and avoiding another 20-metre drop police say would almost certainly have killed him.
The Australian was with two New Zealand companions in Urewera National Park east of Murupara in the North Island, but decided to go on a solo hunt early on Monday and went missing.
Police were alerted on Tuesday, but torrential rain hampered an aerial search for the 26-year-old.
Police say the man had slid some 50 metres down a bluff and say if he had not grabbed at the tree he would have tumbled over a cliff onto a rocky creek bed.
It took the hunter the remainder of the day and several hours the next morning to climb back up the bluff, and then to make his way back to the hut the group had been staying in.
Police say he suffered severe bruising and a possible broken rib.
The group was taken out by helicopter.
