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Police recover body on Routeburn Track

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Fri, 26 Aug 2016, 11:19AM
The outside of the hut where the woman was found (Supplied)
The outside of the hut where the woman was found (Supplied)

Police recover body on Routeburn Track

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Fri, 26 Aug 2016, 11:19AM

UPDATED 11:45am: Police and rescue crews have recovered the body of a man believed to be the Czech tourist who died following a fall on Routeburn Track.

The body is yet to be identified, but police have confirmed the name of the man they were searching for is Ondrej Petr, aged 27.

The female Czech tourist who survived nearly a month in freezing conditions on the Routeburn Track heard her tramping partner's dying breath after the pair had fallen down a steep slope, according to a report.

More details are emerging of how the woman, named on Friday morning as Pavlina Pizova, endured her ordeal in Fiordland National Park before being rescued this week.

Ms Pizova is also expected to front a media conference at lunchtime.

The pair, aged in their late 20s and early 30s, set off from Glenorchy on July 26.

They had no tent or locator beacon, and hadn't told anyone of their plans before they set off, Vladka Kennet, consul for the Czech Republic told Fairfax Media.

A search was only started when the Czech consulate noticed social media posts back home concerned about them.

The pair had spent one night outside in freezing conditions and then they both fell up to seven metres down a steep slope.

Mr Ondrej became trapped in rocks.

She heard his last breath, but because she was so exhausted she could not free him, Ms Kennet said.

Ms Pizova then spent two more nights in the open before making her way two kilometres, sometimes through chest-deep snow, to the Lake Mackenzie hut, where she was able to break in through a window.

The hut had food, gas and firewood.

However, she couldn't operate the hut's radio because the instructions were in English.

She made a number of attempts to walk out but either mentally or physically couldn't do it.

After her rescue, it was determined she had suffered minor frostbite and possibly hypothermia, and was taken to hospital, but required only an examination.

Both police and Department of Conservation staff say she did the right thing to stay put in the intervening period as she waited for help to arrive.

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