Stalker's fatal error stuns teacher's colleagues

Rosemary Ives had written of her love for outdoor adventure. Photo / Supplied

The principal of a tiny school in the Hutt Valley faces the heart-breaking task of telling pupils a popular teacher was shot dead at the weekend by a hunter stalking deer at night.

Rosemary Ives was killed while brushing her teeth at a campsite near Kaimanawa Rd, about 20km south of Turangi, around midnight on Friday.

Youthtown Trust Rescue helicopter pilot Hendry De Waal arrived on the scene to find her boyfriend, Adam Hyndman, had been performing CPR on her for more than an hour.

Mr De Waal was told a hunter had mistaken her for a deer.

Ms Ives, a 25-year-old maths and science teacher at Wa Ora Montessori School in Lower Hutt, had earlier told work colleagues she was off on another tramping and rock-climbing trip in the Kaimanawas with Mr Hyndman.

"Rose was saying where she was going and what she was doing and she already started to tell us about her plans for Tuesday back at school - and then this happened," said principal Jan Gaffney.

"Out of anything that could happen this is the last thing you would expect."

Ms Gaffney said Ms Ives began teaching at the school earlier this year after heading a youth programme at YouthTown in Upper Hutt for two years.

The news of her death had left staff in "complete shock and disbelief" and it would be hard to tell the students she worked with at the fledgling school, which has a roll of just 13 pupils.

"She was an amazing role model who really enjoyed her work ... a really passionate person who was strong in her beliefs but prepared to listen to what other people thought.

"She really enjoyed her job and her life. She was happy and optimistic ... All the kids loved her."

An Ives family spokeswoman told the Herald last night that Ms Ives' body would arrive today in Christchurch before being taken to Nelson, where she was raised.

She said the family were "stunned, reeling and devastated".

"She was the most amazing, vivacious, vital person who was beautiful inside and out," she said.

"She had absolute potential. When you read those words they don't seem to do justice to the kind of amazing young woman she really was."

The spokeswoman would not comment when asked if there was anger towards the hunter, a 25-year-old man from Hamilton.

"We are going to have the opportunity to say that later on. It's about Rose for now."

It is unclear when Ms Ives' funeral will be held.

On her Bebo page, Ms Ives said she was happiest when she was mountain-biking, rock-climbing, tramping or spending time with her boyfriend.

Alec McIver of the New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association said it was "very unusual" for a hunter to mistake a member of the public for a target.

"You are quite safe out there [in the bush]. This is just a really unusual situation which obviously should never have happened."

Mr McIver said it was a "terrible accident" which tarnished the reputation of all hunters.

"Just like people getting behind the wheel and driving a car when they're drunk and killing someone - it just takes a few idiots to make the majority look bad," he said.

Department of Conservation Taupo-Turangi area manager Dave Lumley said hunters were aware that it was illegal to hunt in the park after dark.

But he said spotlighting, where hunters use torches to identify their targets in the dark, was a problem in the area.

It was well known that hunting after dark was banned and was one of the conditions on a hunting permit.

The hunter, from Hamilton, has been charged with careless use of a firearm causing death.

- additional reporting: NZPA