By Samantha Gee of RNZ

A tramper who drowned in the Wairoa River near Nelson while hiking the Te Araroa Trail had put pressure on himself to complete the 3000km trek within three months, the coroner has found.

Petr Cech, 46, of the Czech Republic was walking the Te Araroa Trail northbound last May when he went missing while on the Alpine Route in Mount Richmond Forest Park.

Coroner Heather McKenzie said Cech was last seen by another Te Araroa tramper at Hunters Hut on May 4, 2023. Cech told the tramper that he wanted to reach Tarn Hut that day and set off on the 24km walk estimated in the trail notes to take 13.5 hours. There had been heavy rain and the other tramper had changed his plans due to the poor weather.

The NZ Mountain Safety Council (MSC) considered Cech’s plans to walk to Tarn Hut that day as “overly ambitious, given the multiple river crossings, steep terrain and elevation changes”.

Cech was reported missing 10 days later on May 14 after a friend in the Czech Republic raised concerns with a person in New Zealand that they had not heard from him, which led to search and rescue teams being deployed. His body was found on May 17, in a river bed in the Wairoa Gorge.

Police said it appeared Cech had fallen into the river while trying to cross it between Top Wairoa Hut and Mid Wairoa Hut, and was swept to his death.

McKenzie said it was not known whether Cech tripped and fell, or if he was attempting to cross the flooded Wairoa River when he drowned.

The report detailed how he had already experienced at least two problematic river crossings. He was swept downstream when crossing the Arrow River in Otago the month before and had to be rescued by helicopter after activating his personal locator beacon.

Cech had also posted on Facebook about crossing a river near Hanmer where he said the water levels were up to his neck, and he had only just managed to clamber out safely on the other side where he collapsed in exhaustion.

Petr Cech drowned in the Wairoa River near Nelson.

McKenzie said while she was unable to explain how Cech ended up in the swollen Wairoa River, it appeared he was attempting to complete the trail in a much shorter time than most trampers, and that he did not significantly alter his plans to factor in bad weather or other events.

He had told a fellow Te Araroa walker also from the Czech Republic, who was walking the trail southbound, that he planned to complete the trail in three months before his visa expired in June 2023.

The Te Araroa Trust said it usually takes people between 50 and 80 days to walk the length of each island, and those who can do it in 50 days need a high degree of fitness and some luck with the weather.

“While it is clearly possible that Cech pressed on in bad weather to meet his target when he should not have, and then high river levels and/or a slippery track led to him falling into the river and drowning, I cannot make a safe finding to the effect that continuing in poor conditions caused Cech to do so,” McKenzie said.

She said he could have tripped on a dry part of the track and fallen into the river but been unable to extricate himself.

“Cech’s death might have been nothing to do with poor weather or inexperience or risk-taking to meet a self-imposed target. Or, it could have been related to all or some of those things. The available evidence before me, unfortunately, cannot disclose what happened because there were no witnesses to Cech entering the water and no evidence about where and in what circumstances he left the track.”

The Alpine Route through the Mt Richmond Ranges is described as an expert-level, challenging back-country route. Photo / RNZ

Challenging terrain, a hotspot for search and rescue incidents

Another tramper had raised concerns with the Department of Conservation (Doc) about the state of the trail upstream of the Mid Wairoa Hut in 2021.

The operations manager for the area had walked the Red Hills and Wairoa sections of the Te Araroa Trail to see if there were any issues with it. He was satisfied with the standard of the track and said there were no significant safety issues, but noted it was a challenging section that required careful navigation and should not be attempted quickly.

In the coroner’s report, Doc noted that there was an increasing trend towards fast, competitive tramping on Te Araroa.

“There are now recorded fastest known times and more trampers are adopting a model of light, minimal packing and fast tramping. This creates substantial risks and is a critical issue, as there is little to no margin for error if undertaking this approach on this section of Te Araroa (for example, a lack of spare food makes it harder to wait out high rivers/bad weather).”

MSC chief executive Mike Daisley said the section of the trail where Cech died was described as a challenging backcountry route including slippery, narrow sections and steep drop-offs as well as eight river crossings, with the potential for rivers to rise quickly during heavy rain.

Its report found Cech was not sufficiently prepared for the trail and had a lack of river crossing skills, had not understood the weather effects and had ignored the advice of others who recommended he turn back or wait for rivers to recede.

Between 2011 and 2019 there were 21 people involved in search and rescue incidents along the section of the track between St Arnaud to Hackett Hut.

Data analysed by MSC showed the majority were injured after slipping or falling, however several had to be rescued after being stranded by rising water or being swept downstream during a river crossing attempt.

“We hope all trampers, especially people embarking on backcountry adventures such as Te Araroa, will learn from this tragic incident and that our recommendations will help to prevent others from losing their lives.”

It made five recommendations following Cech’s death, all of which were endorsed by the coroner.

• - Solo tramping in back-country terrain was not recommended for those without sufficient experience, well-developed skills and strong knowledge of NZ’s conditions and terrain.
• - Te Araroa walkers should only attempt the trail in the recommended seasonal window (that walkers finish no later than April and that the majority of the South Island should not be attempted between May and October due to snow, avalanches and heavy rain) and build enough flexibility into their trip planning to allow for weather-related delays.
• - Trampers should be aware that advanced tramping tracks may involve walking on unformed, steep and rough tracks with unbridged stream and river crossings.
• - Experience in assessing whether a river is safe to cross, and the skills to cross safely, are necessary for all Te Araroa walkers, as well as anyone tramping on tracks that have unbridged stream or river crossings.
• - All trampers and other back-country users should be intimately familiar with the signs of an unsafe river; water moving faster than normal walking pace, discoloured, cloudy, surging water, visible debris in the river, such as tree branches and the sound of rolling boulders on the riverbed.