Police still hoping to find tramper
Family desperate for news of their daughter reported missing on Monday
The hunt for the British tramper missing in Mount Aspiring National Park is set to continue this morning with search-and-rescue teams using thermal imaging cameras.
Yesterday police said they were still optimistic they would find Stephanie Simpson.
Haast sergeant Mark Kirkwood, who is in charge of the search-andrescue operation, said the overnight temperatures have not been very cold, the rivers were not as high as they have been recently and Simpson was “an experienced and very fit” tramper.
The 32-year-old from Essex was believed to have gone for a day hike up to the Brewster Hut and had planned to walk up to the glacier about 2km north of the hut.
She also planned to visit the Blue Pools, near Makarora.
She was reported missing around 8.45am on Monday when she failed to keep an appointment.
Yesterday Wanaka and West Coast search-and-rescue teams as well as members of the public began combing the trails from Fantail Falls to Mt Armstrong and in the Makarora Valley soon after daylight.
Kirkwood said she was only carrying a day pack and probably did not take a search-and-rescue beacon with her.
Meanwhile, Simpson’s family are desperate for news of their daughter.
“Until they get some news, [ the family] are in the dark. Just really hoping we may hear something today from the foot searches,” a family spokesperson said yesterday.
Simpson arrived in Wanaka in November and has been working as a landscape gardener for Doug the Gardener.
Her employer Douglas Peddle was in Haast yesterday morning and was believed to have joined one of the volunteer search parties.
Peddle said Simpson was a keen tramper and had lots of hiking equipment. “She’s very fit and healthy, she came over from the UK and was keen to explore everything this region has to offer. She’s been doing a few tramps in the area and went away last weekend,” he said.
A close friend, who didn’t want to be named, described the Brit as “outdoorsy, super friendly and super bubbly”.
“She can make friends in an instant, she’s awesome.”
Simpson’s disappearance comes after heavy rain battered areas of Southland and Otago last week with rising rivers inundating low-lying homes, businesses and farms.
A state of emergency was declared in flooded Southland, where roads were closed. The swollen rivers may have also been responsible for the deaths of two trampers who got into trouble while heading into the Mt Aspiring National Park.
Wanaka Senior Sergeant Miriam Reddington said their bodies were found in the Makarora River, near the start of the Blue-Young link walking track and just upstream of the confluence of the Young River.
One body was recovered on Friday afternoon and the second on Saturday.
Police earlier said they wanted to hear from anyone who stayed in the Cameron Flat area on Friday and may have spoken to Stephanie, or anyone who may have seen her on the track from Fantail Falls to Mt Armstrong, or in Makarora Valley.