Jodie Sullivan was the instructor in charge when the students from Elim Christian College and tteacher Tony McClean were swept to their deaths in a flash flood in the Mangatepopo Gorge, in the central North Island, on April 15 last year.
A Labour Department report, leaked to the Dominion Post, called Ms Sullivan's decision to go into the gorge "an action on her part which ultimately resulted in the group being exposed to the hazard of a flash flood".
It was only the second time Ms Sullivan, who was new to the centre, had led a trip of this nature.
The report said "Ms Sullivan simply did not have adequate experience of the gorge environment and catchment to make a safe decision".
Ms Sullivan refused to be interviewed by Labour Department officials, according to the report.
OPC field manager Kerry Palmer is quoted in the report as saying that Ms Sullivan should have noticed the increased rainfall and should have taken her group on a short gorge walk.
But the report said this failed to take into account that "once inside the gorge, it is difficult for an instructor to assess what the weather is doing outside".
Ms Sullivan's lawyer William McCartney told the Dominion Post yesterday that it seemed unlikely that greater experience at the OPC would have stopped her from entering the gorge.
"It was a scheduled trip into the gorge. Therefore, the trip would go ahead unless someone decided to cancel it. No one cancelled it and, on the information in the possession of the OPC (and Ms Sullivan) at the time, there was no reason to cancel it."
The OPC was last week ordered to pay $480,000 in fines and reparations after pleading guilty in Auckland District Court to health and safety charges.
It admitted it failed to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of employee Jodie Sullivan and that it failed to take all practicable steps to ensure no action or inaction of Ms Sullivan harmed any other person.
Ms Sullivan did not face any charges as the Department of Labour laid charges against the OPC and not individuals.
The full leaked report was considerably different to the summary of facts presented in court, but a department spokesman said the parties agreed the court document provided all the relevant facts for sentencing.
Elim Church leader Pastor Luke Brough said the report had split family and friends of the seven killed.
It would be at least a generation before Elim College returned to the OPC following the report, he told The Dominion Post.
"You wouldn't send your child down there reading that."
