Queenstown coroner Alan Macalister found that human remains discovered in April in the South Siberia Valley were those of Dr Derek Neville Hawkins, 20 months after he was seen at a hut in the valley.
However, the exact cause of death will never be known.
Constable Emma Fleming, of Wanaka, told Mr Macalister the retired metallurgist and university lecturer from Sheffield had visited his sister in Tauranga before travelling to Wanaka on March 22.
He travelled by jet-boat up the Wilkin River before tramping to the Siberia Hut on March 28.
He stayed overnight with a party of other trampers, telling them the next morning he would follow them to Crucible Lake.
"Mr Hawkins was not an experienced tramper nor was he familiar with the area," Const Fleming told Mr Macalister.
"He was, however, quite fit for his age although he did require angina medication and anti-depressant medication."
Dr Hawkins was last seen between 10am and 11am walking north up towards the Crucible Lake track.
The five-day search initiated the next morning was called off after failing to find any trace of him, Const Fleming said.
A year later six trampers - including two doctors - found a large bone in the stream bed while walking up the south branch of the Siberia Valley.
Assuming it was an animal bone, the group carried on.
Soon afterwards they found a Fairydown day pack and turned back, knowing a tramper had been missing.
After a further search, they found human remains, clothing and a Ricoh SLR camera.
On returning to Wanaka on April 3, the group reported their findings to the Wanaka police.
A police search-and-rescue recovery team removed the remains and several items, including clothing made in Britain, sunscreen from a British pharmacy chain, a gold watch later identified by Dr Hawkins' wife, Shirley Hawkins, as identical to one he owned, and cord for reading glasses or sunglasses.
Mrs Hawkins confirmed her husband had a Ricoh SLR camera and used a cord on his reading glasses.
Const Fleming said the remains were beneath a large, sloping rock in a stream bed.
"The rock slab was half-covered in moss and quite slippery," she said.
Because the stream bed was cut off by waterfalls and steep bluffs about 250m beyond the rock, she said it was "conceivable that a person who had reached this point and had started to descend back down the stream bed could have slipped as they descended the slippery rock slab".
Mr Macalister said he was satisfied the remains found in the valley were those of Dr Hawkins.
"It would appear that he lost his way, walking past the walk to Lake Crucible," Mr Macalister said.
He said it was possible Dr Hawkins had been to the end of the valley and, finding it impassable, returned but slipped on the rock.
Mr Macalister found that Dr Hawkins died on or about March 29, 2007, in the south branch of the Siberia Valley.
"It is not possible to say whether he died of injuries sustained in a fall . . . or some other medical event," he said.
