The police admit they may never find the two bodies missing after the eruption on Whakaari/White Island.
Tour guide Hayden Marshall Inman and 17-year-old Australian tourist Winona Langford are thought to be in the sea after being washed off the crater.
While the police continue to search in the area where one body was last seen in the water they are also modelling where they could have drifted.
But Deputy Police Commissioner Mike Clement told RNZ reporter Sarah Robson there are no guarantees the bodies will be found.
