Mt Cook search costs to remain public

The Timaru Herald

Ratepayers will continue to foot the bill for search and rescue operations at Aoraki Mt Cook, with authorities not willing to put a price on human life.

After two aerial rescue operations this month at Mt Cook, the question of compulsory insurance for tourists taking part in risky activities has resurfaced.

However, mid-south Canterbury police area controller Dave Gaskin, who oversaw the operations, does not back an insurance or user-pays scheme.

Police had a budget of about $30,000 for search and rescue in South Canterbury, with most of it spent on helicopter hire, he said.

The budget took another hit yesterday when a Czech tourist had to be airlifted out of the Hooker Valley after falling a couple of metres and suffering from a suspected broken ankle.

ACC picks up the costs for rescues if a person is injured, but searches, body recoveries and medical incidents are a police responsibility.

"Do you take a credit card machine up in the helicopter and check they have enough credit before you rescue them?

"If they don't have insurance, do you just leave them up there on the hill?" Mr Gaskin asked.

"There are too many fish hooks to be worked through and I think it is a question for the Government really," he said.

The latest search and rescue operation in which an Australian man died and his brother was rescued from Mt Cook's Zurbriggens Ridge was expected to cost about $5000.

This included the helicopter hired to pick up the surviving climber as well as flights to search for the missing man.

Although Mr Gaskin has not yet finalised the costs of the rescue and recovery of two Japanese climbers early this month, he expected the helicopter costs to be around $15,000.

A figure had not been put on the cost of staff time, primarily police and Conservation Department staff, diverted to Mt Cook rescues. He estimated that police spent 50 to 60 hours on the Japanese climbers' rescue, and this was time that officers were away from other duties.

He was not in favour of a user-pays system for search and rescue, and he said far more New Zealanders had to be rescued than overseas visitors.

"If SAR became user-pays, lost children or Alzheimer's sufferers would be faced with a bill for their rescue the same as injured climbers."

New Zealand Land Search and Rescue nationally has about 2500 trained volunteers who give up their own time to do search and rescue work.

LandSAR chairman Phillip Melchior said ACC negated the need for a user-pays system.

"I go climbing every year in Switzerland and I have to take out special insurance to do that.

"You can make a very good argument to say that there should be user-pays [in New Zealand] and that tourists should have to take out some sort of insurance.

"But we have got an ACC system, and the way it is structured, it makes no distinction between those who are visitors to the country and those who live here."

ACC covers the medical treatment of tourists injured in New Zealand, but the coverage ends when they leave New Zealand.

ACC cover means overseas visitors and New Zealanders forgo the right to sue.

Prime Minister John Key, who is also Tourism Minister, is not in favour of forcing another cost on tourists. "We hope that all tourists going into the more dangerous areas of our country know what they are doing and are as prepared as possible.

"However, imposing an insurance levy on visitors is not something I support. These tourists make a significant contribution to New Zealand's economy."

Search and rescue is administered by New Zealand Police. At Mt Cook, the search and rescue team responds to between 15 and 25 incidents a year.

Search and rescue operations at Aoraki Mt Cook National Park this year:

 

January 1: Alpine guide Anton Wopereis dies after falling 60 metres. His client, Scottish woman Vicky Jack, is flown out.

January 6: The body of a man, aged about 60, known only as Vincent, is recovered from a steep ravine, at the head of the Mueller Glacier. Because of the difficult terrain, two helicopters are sent in to recover the body.

January 25: A 20-year-old Swedish tourist is "heli-stropped" off Mt Wakefield in the national park after being stranded overnight.

January 30: A 23-year-old Italian tourist is rescued by helicopter after a rock falls on his hand. He had been told by Conservation Department staff not to climb the hill. Rescue believed to have cost $5000.

February 8: Alan Paul Leger, 57, of Boston dies after he misses the turnoff on the track back to Sealy Tarns and continues down a ridge before slipping and falling to his death. An aerial search finds his body in a narrow, rocky gorge.

Easter: Four rescues, thought to have cost about $10,000.

March 20: A Hamilton doctor is flown off the Sefton Bivvy after becoming stuck on an access route for climbers.

March 21: A Dutch climber is rescued from Fitzgerald Pass after he tries Copland Pass without an ice-axe or crampons. Police are astonished with his stupidity and describe him as having done everything wrong.

March 23: A Christchurch man, who slips and falls on the Barron Saddle, is rescued.

March 25: A Czech couple are rescued and airlifted out from the Haast Ridge after being advised not to climb.

August 16: Six Australian tourists are rescued off Mt Cook after being stranded for 36 hours. The group are ill prepared with no avalanche equipment, snowshoes or skis.

December 6: Japanese climber Kiyoshi Ikenouchi, 49, dies of hypothermia on Middle Peak where he and his friend Hideaki Nara have been holed up for six days. Mr Nara is flown out and admitted to hospital. Helicopter airtime estimated to have cost $15,000.

December 11: Mark Vinar dies after he falls an estimated 500m to the base of Zurbriggens Ridge. His brother then has to spend two days in a snow cave high on Mt Cook awaiting rescue by helicopter. Helicopter rescue thought to have cost $5000.

Yesterday: A Czech tourist is airlifted out of the Hooker Valley after falling a couple of metres and badly injuring his ankle.