Hunter slipped exiting helicopter

Search and rescue members leave Wanaka to recover the body of Clifford Senter.

The US tourist who plunged to his death after stepping out of a helicopter in the Southern Alps was the seventh foreigner to die this year while visiting national parks.

Police retrieved the body of Clifford Wayne Senter, 57, of New Hampshire, yesterday.

Mr Senter was killed when he tripped and fell down a steep bluff on Monday while chamois hunting near Lois Peak in the Mt Aspiring National Park.

Wanaka Search and Rescue coordinator, Sergeant Aaron Nicholson, said Mr Senter had been in New Zealand for the past week on a hunting holiday, with his wife and two friends.

They had intended to travel to Australia yesterday.

Mr Senter, his friend and a local hunting guide had left Wanaka by helicopter about 2.30pm on Monday.

They spotted chamois in the head of the valley, and the pilot landed on a small flat outcrop.

However, when Mr Senter stepped out of the machine, he slipped and slid down the slope with no chance of holding his fall.

Low cloud and fog prevented a search and rescue team from reaching him on Monday night. A recovery team was deployed first thing yesterday and located his body at the base of the bluff in the afternoon.

He had sustained very serious head and body injuries. A post mortem examination would be done today.

Meanwhile, the dead man's wife was still in Wanaka, and was expecting family from the United States to join her shortly.

The case had been handed over to the coroner and police had also advised the Civil Aviation Authority.


DEATH IN THE OUTDOORS

* April 27: A US woman, Raydene Shepard, 70, died of hypothermia on Mount Tongariro.

* April 12: Body of English tramper Robert Atkin, 26, found in bush in the Kauaeranga Valley, near Thames.

* March 20: Italian tourist Umberto Cantamutto, 27, of Via Pagno, killed after he fell 50m at a popular climbing area at Hospital Flat, on the outskirts of Wanaka.

* March 16: US tourist Christopher Clarke, 34, found dead in the Browning Pass area of Arthurs Pass National Park. March 2: Body of English tramper Elizabeth Thomson, 55, found along with her backpack, with empty sandwich bags, a water bottle and car keys at the edge of bush on Mount Aicken at an altitude of 1700m.

* February 25: Body of Japanese tramper Katsusbaro Nagashima, 65, found on the West Coast.


- NZPA