Liat Okin (also known as Liat Tas) failed to return from a tramp of the Routeburn Track on March 25. Photo / Supplied
Liat Okin (also known as Liat Tas) failed to return from a tramp of the Routeburn Track on March 25. Photo / Supplied
KEY POINTS:
The brother of missing Israeli tramper Liat Okin is confident she is still alive.
Ms Okin, 35, has not been seen since failing to return from tramping the Routeburn Track through the Mt Aspiring and Fiordland National Parks on March 25.
An aerial and land search of thepopular walking track has failed to find any sign of her.
Itamar Tas, 26, who flew to Queenstown from Israel on Friday to join the search, said today he was still holding out hope his sister would be found alive.
He said a hut warden and an Israeli couple who may have been the last people to see his sister, had confirmed that she was carrying all the essentials needed on her trip.
"She got warm clothes and sleeping bag, so we have good reason to believe that she is alive and we have the possibility to find her," Mr Tas told Radio New Zealand.
Ms Okin, 35, was reported missing by family members in Israel after she failed to contact them a week after setting out alone on the three-day Routeburn tramp.
Mr Tas said yesterday his sister was a tough woman and would fight hard to stay alive.
Mr Tas, a media studies student, was accompanied to New Zealand by his closest friend Joe Kariv and one of Israel's most high-profile professional mountain guides, Magnus Hilik, operations manager of Israel's search and rescue team.
Mr Hilik said he was sent by the Tas family's insurance company.
Outdoors experts have said Ms Okin was not an experienced tramper or well equipped and might have become disorientated on a section of the track described on a Department of Conservation website as "very exposed and extremely hazardous in adverse weather conditions".
Acting Senior Sergeant Steve Hutt, of Queenstown police, said that concern for her safety increased as every day passed
"The worst case scenario is that she's taken a wrong turn somewhere and we've just got to pinpoint where that could have been."
A team of about 20 police and search and rescue volunteers from Queenstown and Invercargill are involved in the search for Ms Okin.
