A Penryn family is mourning the loss of their second son in three years after a hiker’s body was found last week.

Donald Wyatt, of Treverbyn Rise in Penryn, was too upset to talk to the Packet after New Zealand police said they were confident a body found on Friday was that of his son Andrew Ian Wyatt, 41, missing since before Christmas.

The disappearance of the former Penryn College student on December 15 coincided almost to the day with the anniversary of the death of his older brother Duncan in December 2010.

In the Famous Barrel pub in Penryn, where Duncan used to drink and Andrew would visit occasionally, regulars said: “It’s just tragic, especially for his family at this time of year.

“It’s a sad accident, he was a smart man and he would have taken precautions.”

Mr Wyatt was last seen at 6am on December 15 as he left the Blue Lake Hut in Nelson Lakes National Park, carrying light equipment.

Police reported on December 27 that searchers had found a body at the bottom of a 100 metre cliff, below the Lake Constance Bluff, on Mr Wyatt's intended route between Blue Lake Hut and Waiau Pass.

They were prevented from getting to the area before the morning of December 27 due to bad weather, but by 5.30pm local time it was reported that one of the teams had located the body.

Search coordinator Constable Dave Cogger said Mr Wyatt had an “unsurvivable fall” from the bluff.

Mr Wyatt arrived in New Zealand on November 21 to walk the Te Araroa Trail, a popular route which stretches the length of the country, and his last contact with his family was on December 12, three days before he went missing.

He was expected to collect a food parcel from a village on December 16, but never arrived, a helicopter reconnaissance was carried out on December 23 and spent three hours visiting all the local hiking huts as concerns grew about deteriorating weather conditions.

Mr Wyatt was a former pupil of Penryn College, before earning degrees in science from The Open University and in radiotherapy and oncology from Sheffield Hallam University, and had worked as a radiographer as well as for the Royal Navy.

New Zealand police said Mr Wyatt’s family have been informed, and they are now trying to arrange a formal identification of the body.