Team 'very proud' of bringing missing woman home

A Wanaka search and rescue swiftwater rescue and canyon team member searches in one of the Pyke...
A Wanaka search and rescue swiftwater rescue and canyon team member searches in one of the Pyke Creek canyon pools for missing tramper Stephanie Simpson. PHOTOS: WANAKA SAR
The Wanaka search and rescue team who found the body of missing tramper Stephanie Simpson in Mount Aspiring National Park last week should be ‘‘very proud’’ of bringing her home to her family, Wanaka SAR chairman Aaron Nicholson says.

Stephanie Simpson
Stephanie Simpson
The 32-year-old British born Wanaka landscape gardener was the subject of a five-day search and rescue operation involving Wanaka SAR and West Coast LandSAR teams, police and volunteers.

The alarm was raised on Monday, February 10, when Ms Simpson did not turn up for work at her Wanaka landscaping job.

She had told friends and posted a Facebook message saying she was going to hike to the Mt Brewster hut and on to the Blue Pools the previous weekend.

After four days of land-based searching, a member of the Wanaka aerial search team spotted her back pack and a West Coast dog handler team found her boots in the Pyke Creek canyon.

The next day four members of the Wanaka SAR swiftwater rescue and canyon team began methodically searching the canyon, starting at the top of the creek, and found her body in water halfway down the canyon early on Friday afternoon.

"The team had to put dive masks on to look under the water, probing through all the white water with avalanche probes. It is quite full on and the guys did an excellent, excellent job of finding her," Mr Nicholson said.

Wanaka Search and Rescue Swift Water and Canyon team probes Pyke Creek.
Wanaka Search and Rescue Swift Water and Canyon team probes Pyke Creek.
"They could have easily probed here, probed there, nothing and moved on and we’d still be looking, but it is about the detail, how thorough they were, their understanding of the water, the hydrology and where those sieve points were where someone was likely to be captured."

Mr Nicholson said it was testament to the fact that "you need to have boots on the ground and have the right people in the right places to get these sort of results".

Seventy-five tracks are presently closed across the region from Fiordland and into the southern end of Mount Aspiring Park which could be the reason the Makarora region has been busier this summer, Mr Nicholson said.

Wanaka SAR have been involved in seven other operations in the Aspiring National park this month with over 500 volunteer hours dedicated and in which two other people lost their lives.

"We didn’t get there soon enough to save Stephanie but you get to a point where you go ‘We have to find Stephanie to bring her home’.

"The guys are very proud of being able to do that. They know how important it is for the family," he said.

kerrie.waterworth@odt.co.nz

 

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