Death at Castle Rock

A person has died at Castle Rock in the Coromandel. Emergency services were alerted just before 10.30am yesterday following a sudden death at the site.

Police couldn’t elaborate on the nature of the incident but in a statement said the death was being treated as unexplained.

‘‘Inquiries are ongoing to understand the circumstances of the death.’’

Castle Rock is a 525-metre-high mountain, southeast of Coromandel township.

The site is popular with rock climbers and day walkers.

Martin Necas, a recreational climber with more than 20 years’ experience, said Castle Rock was a challenging climb and best suited to more experienced climbers.

‘‘It’s very tall and access can be a bit tricky for people who don’t know the area,’’ Necas said.

‘‘In some places you abseil down in order to climb up. That’s unusual because most of the time you would start from the ground and climb up. It’s a more technically challenging climb, not necessarily in terms of strength, but you have to be able to do long routes.’’

Castle Rock is accessed off the 309 Road. Website Climb NZ lists Castle Rock as having three climbing walls with a total of 17 routes. Most of the routes are bolted.

Climbing guide Harry Series, from Raglan Rock, has yet to climb Castle Rock but visited the site to ‘‘weigh it up’’. The site did present technical challenges for climbers, he said.