hey all. i have read all this and it is all crap!! i have been riverboarding and it was an awsome trip where all the guides looked after us very well they made me feel safe and i had great fun.

firstly as a comercial operator in the adventure tourism sector on new zealand rivers i hav first hand knowledge wats its like to hav such an incident occur and it takes its toll on everyone not only the family of the victum but of the people who had to be there as it happened. but mr jordan is outta line and obviously unaware that the rest of the world in most cases models or trys to model their adventure tourism activities off us. we are leading the world in qualifications and trainig in just becomin a guide in such an activity. in the case of the t shirt it has no relevance with the jordan case except bad timing. we all know in the industry wat river kill is, we hav all had some.

I very much doubt that the t-shirt was supposed to have anything at all to do with Ms Jordan's death, but with such a highly publicised incident the possibility should have crossed its designer's mind.

On the other hand, I am totally sick of hearing what Chris Jordan thinks about anything. I sympathise greatly with his loss, but his actions and campaign, even to our PM, are part of a sad pattern of behaviour that afflicts many in his situation. I have known several. Whether it is a supposedly preventable accident, dangerous activities, or criminal action, victims too often try to make something good out of it by making sure "it never happens to someone else". It is a vain hope; it will happen again, in other unpredictable ways, so that lessons generally do not come from isolated incidents, however meaningful their victims want to make them.

Whatever his loss, Chris Jordan has not a fraction of the knowledge of safe practice in white water that numerous river guides here and overseas have. The only lessons from Ms Jordan's death are what those with experience (guides and other practitioners) can glean from it. Coroners exist to adduce those lessons, and many groups (like FMC for mountain deaths) make careful study of every incident. A sudden call to arms, to clean up NZ river safety, is foolish and misguided (apt as that may be).

Adrian #27

Your mouth is too big for you...your crass insensitivity to what was a needless death by incompetent operators..just shows how little is between your ears. The day will come hopefully when you will learn some life lessons the hard way. What goes around comes around...and by your words you are in standing in line.

This just isn't a news worthy story if reported properly, the t-shirt and the tragic accident just aren't related. This is a local queenstown journalist stirring up a story and what a good job he is doing of it. 2nd most viewed story on stuff.co.nz today. The real shame is the majority of people who read this story will not read the comments afterwards and go away thinking the worst of the guys involved exactly how the reporter wanted it to read.

I would be interested to know if the Southland Times contacted Mr Jordan about the photo or had he seen it himself?

"Yesterday, Miss Jordan's father Chris Jordan told The Southland Times he was........"

Firstly, lets clear a few things up. The guy in the picture is not an ex-kiwi driver, he is an English guy that lives locally. The 'killing it' reference is in poor taste, but thats what you get with an industry that has a high percentage of Gen X employees. No-one in that company, industry or town doubts that Mr Jordan is justified in feeling horrified about seeing the photos. However he did release the photo to the papers, causing this unfortunate, tragic incident to be replayed in the media again. The staff at that function had no intention of ridiculing the Jordan family, rather one junior staff member had a shirt made that has been taken completely out of context and has caused many un-informed people to leap to conclusions about activities they don't really understand. Lets all take a deep breath and look at it for what it really is, a t-shirt made for a promiscious staff member. Don't turn these guys into villians for going to a party a year after the accident.

just came back from down south and we steered clear of any outfit thats actually killed someone or seriously injured them . . . .thats all the warning i need . . . did anyone see that bungy chord snap in wellington courtenay place last week? thank god they hadnt gone up or theyd have been splatted all over 100s of nightclubbers . . . .what the !?! beware .....

It seems as though this has been totally blown out of context, so a guy wore a tee-shirt, I guarentee he wasn't even thinking that it was offensive when he put it on, and in no way thought that by wearing the tee-shirt he was going be associated with the tragic accident earlier in the year.

So if a Airbus Employee wore a tee-shirt with a crashed plane on it, would that be highly insensitive, and should Airbus be shut down for being a cowboy outfit?

People come to Queenstown and some enjoy the adventurous lifestlye that the place offers, but with anything there is a certain element of risk, however to let the tee-shirt reflect badly on the company in question is shear ignorance on all parties. Perhaps people need to start looking at the positive instead of being so quick to criticise others.

Who the heck wrote this headline? Disgraceful. learn how to spell

Adrian #44

Fair enough. We disagree but nothing wrong with that.

Obzen #45

Yes, I do expect this company to walk on eggshells. One of their customers died through their negligence. If that's not worth walking on eggshells over what is?