Woman dies on Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Monday, 21 October 2019

The woman died while near the Red Crater on the Tongariro Northern Circuit on Saturday.

A woman who decided to carry on hiking the Tongariro Northern Circuit without her friends never made it back to a planned evening meet-up.

The body of the 51-year-old Chinese tourist was found near Red Crater on Sunday morning.

'It's tragic, it's sad,' Senior Constable Barry Shepherd told Stuff.

The group had set off on the Tongariro Northern Circuit from Whakapapa Village on Friday morning, Shepherd said.

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'They went the wrong way … When they realised their mistake, three of them chose to return to Whakapapa Village.

'[The victim] went on by herself.

The group had set off on the Tongariro Northern Circuit from Whakapapa Village on Friday morning.

'The conditions were probably less than favourable.'

After she failed to return for an arranged meet-up on Saturday night, the group - who the victim was travelling NZ with - raised the alarm on Sunday morning.

It wasn't yet clear what killed the woman and her death would be referred to the coroner.

She was found near the Red Crater, the highest point of the walk and a 'reasonable' distance from where she left her friends.

The take home message was 'if you start together, you should finish together', Shepherd said.

The Red Crater is the highest point of the walk .

He'd spent some time with the victim's three friends on Sunday evening, who were grieving the loss of their friend.

Police have been liaising with the Embassy of the People's Republic of China. The circumstances around the woman's death are still being investigated.

Ngāti Hikairo placed a rāhui over the Tongariro Alpine Crossing on Monday morning, which will remain until Thursday morning.

The rāhui had been put in place with support from police, Land Search and Rescue and DOC, the statement said.

'We ask that this is respected and alternative tracks are used during this time.'

Mountain Safety Council chief executive Mike Daisley said the woman's death was a heart-breaking reminder of essential outdoor safety decision-making.

He said roughly 400 people walking the crossing had been involved in search and rescues over the past nine years, by far the most of any walking track in New Zealand.

So for the past nine months the organisation had been working with Department of Conservation, and Ngāti Hikairo ki Tongariro, to work on prevention messages, particularly around the Red Crater which often experiences significantly poorer weather than the sections of the track.

'At this time of the year we're still seeing winter conditions on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and Northern Circuit. It might feel like summer in some parts of the country but in the Park it's very much wintertime. Although the snow is receding at this time of the year, you need to prepare for the weather to get worse.'

Tongariro Guided Walks owner Terry Blumhardtwho is heavily involved in rescues, agreed that the Red Crater was an especially dangerous part of the circuit.

'It's in the middle of the walk, it's the highest altitude area. The part where the terrain, the track is at its steepest and most challenging.

'Parts of the Tongariro Crossing have a very well formed, engineered trail. But the bit in the middle around Red Crater is not.'

On Saturday, gusts reached 90kmh and significant rainfall was forecasted for the Red Crater, Blumhardt, who was in Wellington at the time, said.

'Some of the most dangerous times are the shoulder seasons, when we're coming out of winter but there's still winter conditions present and then at the other end in autumn when we're starting to head into [winter] and we go from really warm weather to those cold snaps. These are your most dangerous times.

'When you're a passionate enthusiast of the outdoors it alway upsets you enormously when someone has come to harm doing the thing that you really enjoy.'

He urged those planning to hike through Tongariro National Park - or anywhere - to seek advice from informations centres or guiding companies around whether it was safe to embark on the walk.

But sometimes, especially when it's a person or group's only had a day or so in the area, advice is disregarded.

'That's the attitude that gets people into the most difficulty.

'We see people pressing on in not very nice weather.'