Dream of career in outdoors shattered

Vanessa Johnson had thrown in her office job and planned a career in the outdoors after returning from a South America travel adventure.

But the 31-year-old Wellington woman's dreams were shattered by Bolivian bandits who murdered her and her partner in an apparent robbery.

Ms Johnson and her Swedish-born partner Kris Persson were shot on August 15 in Ulla Ulla National Park, on the border of Bolivia and Peru. Their bodies were discovered on August 26.

Ms Johnson's father, Paul Johnson, from Bannockburn, near Cromwell, said yesterday he would love to see those responsible caught, but wouldn't dignify them by mounting a crusade.

The killers may have wanted some trinkets the two were carrying, or their passports.

He understood a Swedish passport could fetch up to $25,000 and a New Zealand one up to $15,000.

Mr Johnson said his daughter last made contact with him and his wife via email early last month.

He knew Vanessa was going trekking and didn't expect further contact for a while.

They became slightly anxious only a few days ago.

Mr Johnson said the killings were senseless, but there was some comfort in knowing his daughter, an only child, died doing what she loved.

"She was a traveller, she loved the mountains ... they both had a passion for it and were hell-bent on coming back to New Zealand and setting up a sports shop with mountaineering and so forth in mind," he told National Radio yesterday.

Ms Johnson and Mr Persson were members of the New Zealand Alpine Club and lived with fellow club members in Wellington before they left on their climbing holiday.

They had been due to return to New Zealand at the end of this month.

The couple's flatmates were shocked and devastated by the news, said Alpine Club executive officer Richard Wesley.

"Vanessa was keen to get out and about and ... gave up her office work to go on a big adventure to South America, and was pretty keen to come back and do outdoor climbing as a job," he said.

In an article in the May edition of the New Zealand Alpine newsletter, Mr Persson wrote about the couple's March trip to the Olivine Wilderness Area in Mt Aspiring National Park.

"High points included some brilliant mountain scenery and seeing kaka, morepork, blue duck and other birds. A low point was a southerly storm with 100km/h winds, which caused a tent pole on my $1100 alpine tent to snap and, during the subsequent evacuation, Vanessa to fall and injure her knee in the slippery conditions.

"A 12-hour, 3km bush bash through a particularly bush-lawyer-infested section is also something we could have done without," but added: "All in all, a fantastic time had."

Mr Wesley said many New Zealanders had climbed in Bolivia but there were concerns that bandits were targeting climbers because they had to carry cash.

"It's a fairly remote, adventurous, exciting place to go. Trekkers have become a bit of a target, from what I've heard, because they have to carry money to pay for food and porters and things. There are no banks or ATMs so you end up carrying a bit of cash with you."

The New Zealand Embassy in Chile said yesterday it may revise the travel advisory but tramping in national parks in Bolivia had always been considered safe.

Mr Johnson said his daughter's body would be flown to Queenstown.