Experienced Melbourne climbers killed in fall from New Zealand mountain

Two Australian climbers have been killed in a fall off a mountain in New Zealand's Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park.

Melbourne mountain guide Stuart Jason Hollaway, 42 and his partner Dale Amanda Thistlewaite, 35, were last heard from via a radio call on December 28 during the climbing trip.

The duo were near the top of New Zealand's seventh-highest mountain when they fell a considerable distance to their deaths early on December 29, police say.

The bodies of the two experienced climbers were found on New Year's Day at the bottom of a steep face on the eastern slopes of the 3300m Mt Silberhorn.

It is understood they fell close to where they had been camping and were roped together.

A rescue team had to wait until the evening of January 1 to recover their bodies because of the risk of melting ice.

The families of the pair have been informed and their deaths will be referred to the coroner.

They are the second and third Melburnians to die on a mountain in Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park in under two weeks.

Nicola Anne Andrews, 28, died when she fell 300m from the side of The Footstool on to the Eugenie Glacier on December 23.