The two missing men who spent a night in the Akatarawa Forest, north of Wellington, say they are grateful to be back with their families.

Andy Mccallum and Jim Moore said they kept warm overnight thanks to their three layers of clothing and motocross gear. The pair had decided to stay put in the forest overnight after the sun went down and conditions grew dangerous.

When they realised they would have to stay the night they thought: “Bugger”.

“We knew we got to a point where we thought ‘no it’s going to be safer to stay exactly where we are’, the ground conditions were getting quite dangerous beneath us so we thought it was safer to stay exactly where we were and walk out in the morning.”

The pair had a brand new locator beacon with them but due to “user error” the beacon did not activate.

“In the pitch black, you have to peel a little red sticker off but couldn’t see it - so it didn’t activate.”

They said despite a good map of the area, taking the wrong track is “an easy thing to do” - but it won’t stop them from entering the forest.

“We’ve been riding here for forty years.”

If the situation was to happen again, the only thing the men would do differently would be to stay with their bikes - which are still in the forest.

They said it was fantastic to be able to tell friends and family this morning they were safe and thanked everyone from the community who helped look for them. ”My wife was not too happy with us”, one of the men chuckled.

Tracey Petterson, Moore’s brother-in-law, told NZME the last 24 hours had been “an emotional rollercoaster.

“It’s been good to see the family come together in stressful situations like this to try and deal with the unknown, the motorbike fraternity, this morning when we put word out that they were missing has been absolutely outstanding.”

Wellington Police said the pair failed to return from an off-road motorcycle ride in the Akatarawa Forest yesterday.

Family called police around 9.40pm on Sunday after they didn’t return at the expected time of 5pm.

Their two 4WD vehicles were found at the entrance to the forest.

Search teams entered the area last night and will continue to look for the pair today.

Petterson said the pair were found around 9.15am.

Local volunteers were working to bring the riders out, she said.

Petterson said the pair were very experienced riders and it was unusual for them not to come out before dark.

- Additional reporting by RNZ