Police and navy divers are back in the waters surrounding New Zealand's volcanic White Island looking for a seventh body that authorities believe was trapped after Monday's fatal eruption.
There won't be a resumption of the ground search on Saturday, as search parties consider their next steps in the operation.
A recovery mission continues on Saturday in a bid to find the remaining two bodies.
The recovery operation at Whakaari/White Island, New Zealand. Source: New Zealand Defence Force/AAP
Police believe one body is in the water close to the island, while the other has not been sighted.
Aerial surveillance will also be used to try to locate the two bodies.
“We do believe that at least one of them is in the water and the other one we are unsure," but the body may be in the sea as well, Police Commissioner Mike Bush said at a news briefing.
Friday's search operation as conditions allowed a rescue team onto White Island. Source: New Zealand Defence Force
“We will continue to search for these people,” he added.
Conditions on land were good for Friday's recovery operation and the volcano was "quiet" as the team worked, Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement said.
Scientists have warned that White Island, which is the exposed tip of a mostly undersea volcano, is “highly volatile,” and has been venting steam and mud regularly.
NZ Police Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha said the news of the retrieval on Friday was met with "sighs of relief, joy and clapping" by the families who gathered together.
Rescue and search team on the ground on Friday. Source: New Zealand Defence Force
"They've got their loved ones coming home," he said.
But there was confusion when Australia's foreign minister Marise Payne declared all six bodies were Australians.
Locals understood this to mean Kiwi tour guides Tipene Maangi and Hayden Inman could not be found and had been left behind.
Ms Ardern forcefully dismissed Senator Payne's suggestion all the bodies will be confirmed as Australian.
"That simply will not be the case... that won't simply be accurate," she said.
"Now there's a process to work through to make sure there's certainty that the families absolutely deserve."
The bodies were flown from Whakatane to Auckland where they were met at the airport by a row of hearses which took them in a solemn procession to the city's mortuary to be identified.
Six of the eight bodies trapped on the island are Australian: Brisbane woman Julie Richards and her university student daughter Jessica; Coffs Harbour couple Richard Elzer and Karla Matthews; Melbourne woman Krystal Browitt and Adelaide schoolgirl Zoe Hosking, 15.
killed by the heat, ash and toxic gases that enveloped the island following the eruption.
Sydney's Hollander brothers Berend, 16, and Matthew, 13, and Coffs Harbour man Jason Griffiths died in hospital from their horrific burns, while Adelaide man Gavin Dallow, 53, was declared dead on Wednesday.
Fears are held for Berend and Matthew's parents Martin and Barbara Hollander, while Sydney couple Anthony and Kristine Langford and their daughter Winona, 17, are missing.
Extended family have indicated the Langfords' son Jesse, 19, survived.
He is likely to be one of the 13 Australian survivors who have been flown home to be treated in burns units in Sydney and Melbourne, while one will remain in hospital in New Zealand.
