Police blast late-night tramper

An Israeli tramper who became lost from her party late at night on a track in the Mount Aspiring National Park has been blasted by Wanaka police.

The 21-year-old Israeli tramper was separated from the group travelling between the Young and Siberia huts about 11.30pm on Sunday. She later "wandered into the hut" about midnight after members of her group informed the Department of Conservation hut warden that she was missing.

Wanaka Search and Rescue co-ordinator Constable Mike Johnston said the absolute basics of tramping safety were ignored by the whole party.

"Tramping is about mitigating risk," he said. "And walking that late at night is definitely adding to it."

Mr Johnston said the group ignored basic safety. They also should have been more considerate of other trampers using huts overnight. "Most people using huts usually end up having pretty early nights, and don't need to be woken up by groups of people banging and crashing around and settling in after midnight. It's just ignoring tramping etiquette."

Mr Johnston said while Sunday night's case ended up with a happy ending, it could have escalated into a search and rescue situation.

"Tramping that late at night is just not a good idea. Anything that goes wrong during night-time hours dramatically increases the risk of other things going wrong, people disorientate much easier, and the risk for rescuers increases as well."

The Gillespie Pass circuit,which the trampers were on, is a 58km, three to four-day round trip.

DOC lists it as not suitable in winter and at other times only to be undertaken by relatively experienced parties.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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