The deaths of two people, within a day of each other, in incidents near Mt Cook have been referred to the coroner for investigation.
Duncan Robert Rait (36), a New Zealander living in Melbourne, fell to his death on the Tasman Glacier on Friday, and Robert Buckley (31), an Englishman living in Christchurch, fell 700 feet to his death at Sefton Bivvy, near Mt Cook Village on Saturday.
Police yesterday said although Mr Rait was an experienced climber, the party that accompanied Mr Buckley on Sefton Bivvy had been ''insufficiently equipped and inexperienced for the climb they had undertaken''.
Mr Rait had been with a party of ski mountaineers, who were dropped off near the Tasman Saddle Hut, high up on the Tasman Glacier, and had planned to spend a week at the hut.
After the helicopter departed, they began to make their way down the ridge to the hut, but while walking to the hut, Mr Rait slipped on ice and fell down a gully and over a bluff.
In the second incident, Mr Buckley had been with three other men who had attempted to climb to the Sefton Bivvy from the Mt Cook village.
They had hired some climbing equipment earlier that day.
They had managed to get within 80m of the bivvy when Mr Buckley slipped on ice and fell.
The remaining party members raised the alarm but were then unable to move either up or down.
A helicopter with a rescue team on board located both the dead man and his companions after the alarm was raised on Saturday.
However, the team had to wait until the following morning to effect a rescue of the remaining party and a recovery of the body, because of the onset of darkness.
