lost tramper in Paparoas

Warned off and no tent.... :O Wow. I'm on the Te Araroa Facebook page and over the past 6 months there has been increasing talk about doing it in winter helped on by a few brave, but also lucky, souls posting beautiful pictures on their winter treks making it look appealing. It makes me worried for them reading some of the posts of the clearly under-prepared, but what can you do....

theres someone in the south island doing it now. he is slow and gets stranded at huts for days at a time.... has lightweight gear, struggles with the cold and all his gear getting damp. has a tonne of electronics with him, including a laptop and heavy top end camera equipment... had no experience with ice axe and crampons until he found out he needed them for this trip..., he's roughly half way through the south island...

Yea that was the main guy I had in mind. http://wirednomads.com/te-araroa/ Lake Angelus https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/w0ul6wu4lmti7yk/Photo%2029-08-16%2C%2012%2018%2011%20PM.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/h82xydfyiuin70s/Photo%2029-08-16%2C%2012%2020%2010%20PM.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/5fod9w3i98lvbdh/Photo%2029-08-16%2C%2012%2032%2059%20PM.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/psq4xzy54a7aeya/Photo%2029-08-16%2C%2012%2033%2031%20PM.jpg And if he is patient and equipped to wait it out when needed it looks like a completely amazing experience (and his photography is top notch).

canon EOS 5D, one of the best cameras you can buy, the lenses weigh a tonne

"Pizova and Petr, both from tiny Czech towns, started their journey despite being warned off by Department of Conservation staff, having no tent or locator beacon and telling no one of their plans." Considering the woman speaks no English and it seems unlikely that any DOC staff would have given a warning or other information in Czech because (rightly or wrongly) DOC seems to largely assume that understanding English is visitors' responsibility, I'm wondering if she was personally aware of the issues raised and actively making fully informed decisions, or if she was effectively following along. Throughout this she seems to have been a target of most of the public criticism, possibly because the other 50% of the party didn't survive.

She's not super fluent, but in the press conferences I've seen she is still speaking broken English. Certainly enough to understand "Don't go, very dangerous". But yes I got the same feeling. Her deceased partner seemed like the experienced one and she was probably just following along and taking his lead. You're right about why she's getting the criticism (although as her partner died I haven't seen any super-harsh comments). If he had survived I think it would have been aimed at him.

I fully agree with the last two posts. Man I've met some crazy Czechs in the hills all around the world. Though I'm not trying to generalize or trivialize. Just my experience. I've dragged my far less experienced partner through the hills on some very scary trips. If I died she wouldn't know what to do. Big difference is we always tell someone where we are heading, we both have top quality storm gear and more importantly I have a plb which she knows how to use.

According to another article they already had previous mountaineering experience. People from Europe have a different set of mind than kiwis: we also have remote areas, dangerous mountains and so, but there is rarely a sign or a ranger to say it's dangerous and you should not go there. In NZ/Australia everything looks dangerous: walking time on signs are sometimes overstated, there are signs saying danger everywhere, and I had rangers trying to change my mind about going somewhere that was perfectly safe and an easy hike just because they didn't know that area or my previous experience. So at the end it's often hard to tell when the "danger" is real or not when you don't know the area and the information you can get is often wrong, and you usually just go there and judge by yourself, sometimes having to turn back when yeah OK that's dangerous I get it now. And in some other cases the ranger did told me "nah you'll be fine" when it was plainly dangerous (like 15 m high wet and slippery vertical rock face). Rangers don't go everywhere, and even if they did, their experience is different than yours and they can't always tell in 5 minutes what kind of experience you have and what would be right or wrong for you. So... not to say that it wasn't a mistake to go without a tent, or leaving intentions, or a PLB. Just trying to explain that for non-kiwis seeing all those "danger" signs or having people trying to turn you off is often seen as over-protective and not really serious, even if it seems stupid, it's sometimes hard to understand that we come from a different background where our culture of danger is different, our walking tracks usually don't have signs about possible dangers (not that they are all perfectly safe), and our bunk beds don't have signs saying "Bunk beds are really dangerous and shouldn't be used by kids" :)

We do have a bit of a nanny state. We also are quite socialist in regards to rights and wrongs and respecting authorities views. We are in general more liable to listen to advice and heed it at the expense of our own abilities or experience. A lot of other western cultures have a more individual push the limits mentality, to not limit your life experience. Take things with a grain of salt. Live life to the fullest . Even more so those who spend thousands of dollers to travel to the edge of the world (New Zealand). They come here and find our nanny state a little amusing so sometimes decide that its a super safe place where she will always be right as long as you smile and speak a little broken English. Sometimes it's not. We focus on the quite rare times it all goes wrong. Someone is ill prepared for New Zealand conditions and dies. We wonder why they don't learn. Because there are thousands and thousands of foreigners who go into our hills ill prepared have a fantastic time then go home and tell all their friends. For this reason I don't see things changing. They don't listen to us they listen to each other.

@bohwaz "According to another article they already had previous mountaineering experience." I think that a bit like saying @Gaiters partner above is "experienced". She has been dragged on trips and so has experienced the mountains, but I guess when we read "experienced" we also read a bit of "competent" also. This lady may have experienced the mountains before, but all evidence points to her not being the competent member of the party. I don't think that's having a go at her. Not her fault her partner wasn't there to help. Just the fact. I understand the reasoning about different cultural attitudes to danger warnings. But as they did everything else wrong too, I think you would have trouble pinning this incident on just a difference in danger perception. @Gaiters - Yea Mount Katahdin always comes to mind, the very last days' walk on the Appalachian Trail. Where their national park service basically says yea we don't want to be liable for anyone up there in winter so it is illegal to go up after XX date. If you're late after your 3 month thru-hike then too bad, come finish it in summer.