West Coast police fear for the safety of a French-Canadian tramper who has not been seen for a week.
Forty-year-old Sorem Kvist, from Montreal, was last Tuesday advised to abandon his planned tramp over the Copland track, about 26km south of Fox Glacier.
Department of Conservation (DOC) staff had found
his bicycle at the start of the track.
Mr Kvist speaks French and has little English. He told DOC staff, via radio from Douglas Hut on the track, that he was going to continue to walk the Copland Pass despite being advised against doing so. He has not been seen since, said search and rescue coordinator Constable Mike Tinnelly.
Questions had also been raised about his equipment.
Mr Tinnelly said Mr Kvist managed to scrounge a couple of days' food from other people in the hut, which led them to believe he continued to walk the track.
Rain hit the area over the next couple of days.
A group of trampers walking the other way, from Mount Cook later in the week, said there was no one else on the track.
"They did not see anyone and this concerns us. We have been in contact with Tekapo police to get them to check with bus companies to make sure he has not sneaked through," Mr Tinnelly said.
The man's bike was still on the West Coast side of the track.
This afternoon a search and rescue team will fly into the area and check out all of the huts on the West Coast side.
"If we do not find anything then, we will have to take the search another step further."
- NZPA
