Glacier tours popular despite deaths

NICKY PARK, AAPThe West Australian When tourists visit the popular glaciers on New Zealand's West Coast they are given a blunt verbal warning not to go beyond the safety ropes. "If

you go here you will die." In the last 18 months three Australians have died on two glaciers in the South Island - the Fox and Franz Josef. Local authorities insist the glaciers

aren't that dangerous if admired from a safe distance. "We are operating within a natural environment and there is obviously a risk associated," said Kerry Myers, a

spokeswoman for Ngai Tahu Tourism, the only tour operator on the Franz Josef glacier. "It's our job to ensure that we have systems and procedures in place to limit that risk."

Ms Myers said the most common injury their visitors cop is "someone tripping over their own feet, which could happen if you were walking for the bus". A 37-year-old Australian man

on one of their tours, John Parisis, slipped while walking along the lower part of a crevasse on the glacier early in June. A preliminary post-mortem report found he died of natural causes

but it's unclear whether the NSW man fell and then suffered a heart attack or vice versa. "However, the coroner is investigating the circumstances of the death and will make a

decision at a later date as to whether an inquest will be held," a spokesman for New Zealand's justice ministry said. Ngai Tahu Tourism, which have been operating tours at the site

since 1990, are investigating the incident and Ms Myers said she's "proud" of how the incident was handled. "We managed a very difficult situation and … our guides

responded to that need. "In terms of our procedures, they operated by the book and responded by the book." She said it's too soon to tell if safety procedures will change

following Mr Parisis' death, but all visitors are quizzed about their health before taking part. "It's one of those things that when you're relying on a visitor to go

under their own steam there's always that element of risk," she said. She said precise records are kept of "every single incident" and "near miss", in an

attempt to reduce risk. According to the local tourism board 718,398 visitors checked out the West Coast between April 2009-10. About 30 percent of those are Australian. With visitor numbers

on the rise, injuries are bound to be more common, said Department of Conservation ranger Cornelia Vervoom. Tours have been operating on New Zealand's glaciers - some of the only ice

formations in the world growing rather than melting - since the early 1900s. There is only one tour operator per glacier because "we want to limit the number of people who go on to the

glaciers just to limit the amount of impacts on the ice," Ms Vervoom said. People are able to trek around the glaciers and mountains independently, in which case the safety onus is on

them. "There's no one standing up there with a shotgun or anything, we just try to educate people," Ms Vervoom said. "If you were going by yourself and you had no

experience it would be very dangerous. "If you started to slip and you didn't have any experience or equipment you wouldn't be able to stop at all. "But if you go with a

guide, you're provided with the equipment, your guide has experience and they take you along trails on the ice that are safe." The glaciers mark the collision zone between the

Australasian and Pacific plates and are a major drawcard for the South Island. Andrew Hobman, from the Mountain Safety Council in New Zealand, agrees that injuries are "really

rare" on the tours, which are run on the lower glaciers at the foot of the mountains. "Good work is done on the West Coast to warn people of the dangers when they go onto the

glaciers," Mr Hobman said. "They do a lot of work preparing the tracks and putting in handrails. "Most people get to travel there and see those things with a very low level of

risk to themselves." Ms Vervoom said safety ropes are moved around the viewing areas depending on the conditions - if ice is falling off the glacier as it makes its way down the valley

then the ropes are moved back. But people have walked beyond the signs before. In early 2009, two brothers from Melbourne were crushed to death by hundreds of tonnes of ice on the Fox

Glacier when they ignored warning signs and walked beyond a safety barrier. Akshay Miranda, 22, and Ashish Miranda, 24, were on summer holiday in New Zealand with their parents when they

stepped over a safety rope and waded through a swollen stream to get to the glacier. "What they did that was unusual was get so close, right underneath the danger zone," Ms Vervoom

said. "Going beyond the barrier ropes, you can be sort of hit by a flying chunk of ice but if you go right up to where they were there's just no escape. "It was established

by the coroner that we had done everything we needed to." The department erected larger signs and now issues verbal warnings, especially when the glacier is "active" and has

ice falling from it. Ms Vervoom said the most common injuries are sprained ankles, which are "moderately common" but fatalities "are really, really rare". Serious

incidents haven't scared people off seeing the spectacular sites. "It's the only place in the world that you can be at this latitude, moderately warm, and stand there and look

at a glacier close to you," she said. GET THE LATEST NEWS FROM THEWEST.COM.AU IN YOUR INBOX. Sign up for our emails