KEY POINTS:
An American tourist on a "dream adventure holiday" is dead after falling down a gully at Aoraki-Mt Cook National Park.
The 57-year-old man died instantly after leaving the marked path on the popular Mueller Track to get a closer look at the Mueller Glacier.
He was reported missing at 5pm on Friday by a female travel companion when he failed to meet her.
An immediate aerial search did not locate the man, but searchers yesterday morning found his body among the glacier's jagged rocks. He suffered extensive injuries to his head and body.
No names had been released last night.
National park area manager Richard McNamara said the pair had been travelling together for 10 years.
"It's just catastrophic and his female friend is understandably distraught," he said.
"This was their first trip to New Zealand and they were looking forward to completing their dream adventure holiday."
He said the two had arrived at Mt Cook on Friday morning and had planned to travel to Central Otago later that day.
But they had decided to separate and meet at the Hermitage Hotel by 1pm.
However, a witness is reported to have seen the man walking toward the village around 2.30pm.
"It seems like he was already running late and then decided to go off the track," McNamara said.
"It's a very steep track and if you go off the marked route the slumping glacier makes the walls very steep and unstable - the path falls away to the jagged rocks below, which is where he landed."
Hermitage Hotel operations manager David Kidd said the man's travelling partner was staying there while their families in America were notified of his death.
Twizel Senior Constable Brent Swanson said the man was described as fit and a keen walker, although had little experience of the alpine environment.
The death is at least the 18th in the park since June 2003, and the second this year.
- NZPA
