Motorcyclists on a charity ride went for help after finding two bodies on a remote property in the Waitaki Valley, near Waimate, this morning.



The bodies of a man and a woman were discovered by participants in a charity trail bike ride near Waihaorunga, south-west of Waimate. It's understood the ride was raising money for Waimate Main School.



Mid-South Canterbury area commander Inspector Dave Gaskin said due to the isolated location, efforts were still being made to reconstruct what had happened.



Asked if he could say if police were looking for anyone else in relation to the deaths, Mr Gaskin said he would not be in a position to do so "until we can ascertain exactly what happened''.

The scene was being guarded tonight and police would continue with their investigations tomorrow.



He said the bodies had yet to be identified.



Timaru man Daryl MacDonald was part of the first group of motorcyclists on the trail, who discovered the bodies around 11am.



"We were three-quarters of the way through the track where it heads down a steep hill,'' he explained, when he and a group of friends came up behind a woman on her trail bike, who had stopped near the body of a man.



"She thought it was a rider.''



"We stopped; me and three of my mates were on trail bikes.



"We stopped and checked and saw a guy lying on his side facing away from us. He was probably in his late 30s to early 40s.



"We checked him and he was still warm.''



Mr MacDonald said he got back on his bike "and took off up the hill''.



He said the body of the woman was found some distance away, "in a small clearing in between trees''.



He had heard from others on the ride that "it looked like she had been there for a while''.



"There were bloodstains everywhere.''



He took off back to the rides "home base'' to raise the alarm.



"An ambulance guy on a quad bike followed me back. He checked him and said he was dead.



"My mate rang police and they told us to stay where we were.''



Mr MacDonald said the group remained at the scene until 3pm, "then we went to Waimate and were interviewed by police''.



Another of the participants, Andrew Wright, of Timaru, said one of riders had put his hand on the man's chest and it was still warm, so he had tried to stop the flow of blood.