Poor weather and difficult terrain have foiled a bid to recover the body of a Czech tramper who fell to his death on the Routeburn Track a month ago.
Police said this evening another attempt would be made tomorrow morning, weather permitting.
This afternoon, police at a media conference in Queenstown provided more information about the circumstances surrounding the man's death.
His female companion, who waited a month at a hut on the track following his death, has been interviewed by police again today after being spoken to in hospital last night.
Otago Lakes Central Area Commander Inspector Olaf Jensen said the pair entered the track on July 26, and the man fell down a steep slope two days later.
He described the pair - both Czech citizens in their late 20s and early 30s - were ``travelling companions''.
The woman said they were disorientated and off the track at the time her companion fell. She managed to reach him, but he had died soon afterwards.
She had then spent three nights in the open before making her way to Lake McKenzie Hut, about 2km away, where she had remained until she was found yesterday.
Insp Jensen said no other trampers had passed by the hut while the woman was there.
The area was impassable because of snow, and because of her physical condition, which included frostbite, she had ``done the right thing and stayed put''.
"Given her experience, and the avalanche risk, she made the decision to stay in the hut, and that was the right decision."
She had written an `H' sign in the snow as a form of SOS. There was a radio in the hut, but she was unable to make it work.
The man's death was not being treated as suspicious, he said.
``At this stage, the early indications are that he fell.''
The Czech consulate had contacted police yesterday morning to raise the alarm, and the couple's car was found at the track's carpark, near Glenorchy.
The pair, who had been in New Zealand since January for travel and a working holiday, had some back country experience, he said.
DOC Wakatipu operations manager Geoff Owen said the woman had done the right thing to force entry to the warden's hut and ``hunker down'', as the weather in the area was treacherous during winter.
Had the pair been carrying a personal locator beacon, the alarm would have been raised much earlier and there may have been a different outcome, he said.
This morning Otago Tramping and Mountaineering Club spokesman Ian Sime said it was unlikely the couple had left tramping intentions or signed in before starting their hike.
He said it normally just three days to complete the popular walking track.
"She can't have filed an intention form at the start because if she did someone would have been looking for her within a week."
"Five weeks - it's just unbelievable," said Sime.
Given she had stayed in a warden's hut she would have been warm and had access a large supply of food.
There were no conservation rangers stationed along the track outside the Great Walks season.
The Great Walks season ended on the 27th of April this year and would restart on October 25 according to DoC's website.
Sime said at this time of year it was possible snow conditions would make the track difficult for people to pass through.
Flushing toilets at the site were shut down for the off season, replaced with pit toilets and gas was not provided, with DoC recommending online that trampers bring their own cooking stoves.
Running water was also turned off inside the huts but could be accessed from the outside water tank or by melting snow.
Ultimate Hikes general manager Noel Saxon, who runs guided tramps of the track, was surprised it took a month before the woman was found.
He said even during the quieter winter season he would have expected another tramper to have come across her earlier.
Heliworks Queenstown Helicopters general manager Richard Mills said his crew flew the woman out of the area.
He said the woman was "ecstatic" when she was rescued.
There had been no instructions about recovering the man's body.
He said the tragedy could have been averted if the couple were carrying a personal locator beacon.
"If any good can come of this it is the message to carry PLBs. They can take the 'S' our of SAR [Search and Rescue]."
The Routeburn Track stretches for 32 kilometres linking the Mount Aspiring and Fiordland National Parks.
It can be entered at either end with one entrance at Glenorchy and the other at the Te Anau-Milford Rd.
It is ranked as an intermediate track by the Department of Conservation.
- additional reporting NZ Herald/Mountain Scene
