Two Australians have been killed climbing a mountain in New Zealand’s Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park.

New Zealand police said the bodies of Stuart Jason Hollaway, 42, and his partner Dale Amanda Thistlethwaite, 35, were recovered from the upper slopes of Mt Silberhorn.

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The pair fell from the top of the 3,300 metre high mountain, early on December 29, Mid South Canterbury Police Inspector Dave Gaskin said.

They were last heard from via a radio call.

Their bodies were found on New Year’s Day at the bottom of a steep face on the eastern slopes of what is the country’s seventh highest mountain.

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.

Mr Holloway was a highly experience mountain guide, and Ms Thistlethwaite was also an experienced climber, police said.

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 300 metres from the side of The Footstool on to the Eugenie Glacier on December 23.

ABC/AAP