Missing tramper in Southern District, 5:25pm

Wanaka Police and Land SAR volunteers have called off the search for missing Auckland tramper, Irina Yun after a further day of searching failed to find further clues.

Sergeant Aaron Nicholson, the Wanaka Police SAR coordinator said searchers from the Wanaka LandSAR group and LandSAR search dog handlers from Queenstown, Twizel and Christchurch, spent much of today combing areas of Mt Aspiring National Park's Dart River regarded as 'the highest priority'.

'Using the dogs and sending in expert teams to search the gorge area above and below where Ms Yun's pack was found, were pretty much our last throw at this stage.

'Realistically, there is nothing more we can do at this time,' Nicholson said. 'We are not abandoning the search for Ms Yun, but will adopt a continuous limited search that will focus on new information, clues or sightings. If we get any further evidence of her whereabouts we will, of course, reactivate. But at this stage she can only be regarded as missing, presumed drowned.'

Ms Yun, a 36 year-old Russian immigrant living in Auckland, went missing on New Year's Eve while attempting to tramp the notoriously difficult Cascade Saddle track from Mt Aspiring Hut in the West Matukituki Valley, to the Dart Hut on the Dart River. She was last seen at 9.30am heading up the Cascade track.
LandSAR Wanaka search teams have put between 350 and 400 man-hours into the search since then - combing the exposed and difficult high country on the route as well as gullies, river beds and gorges.
On Monday, a tramping pack - positively identified as belonging to Ms Yun - was found in a difficult gorge area of the Dart River, below the Dart Hut. Damage to the pack made it clear that it had been torn from its wearer with considerable force and had been in the water for some time.

Searchers believe Ms Yun was swept away while attempting to cross one of the several side creeks which bisect the track and flow into the Dart.

Nicholson said both Police and LandSAR were 'acutely conscious of how hard it is for Ms Yun's friends and family to accept that potentially we are unlikely to ever find her body. We deeply regret what was a tragic and avoidable loss of life.'

'We can only hope that others will learn from this tragedy that our back country can be very dangerous in bad weather when rivers are running high. I can only urge all trampers - whether they are New Zealanders or visitors - to take the basic precautions; check the weather forecasts, don't play roulette with flooded rivers; go in a group not alone; and leave a detailed note of your intentions.'