The body of the Chinese woman who died in a boating accident on Queenstown's Kawarau River on Thursday afternoon will be repatriated once documentation and official processes are in place, a Wakatipu funeral director said.
Lakes District Funeral Services director Russell McGrouther, whose company was arranging the details, said there were no difficulties in repatriating the woman's body, "just a lot of documentation".
Each repatriation was different, depending on the requirements of the home country, and for international repatriation and flights, the body had to be embalmed and the casket sealed.
Given the number of tourists in the Lakes District at any one time, he said it was inevitable there would be the occasional fatality, but considering the adventurous nature of activities in the area generally they were "very safe".
