'I wish I'd told her not to go into the gorge', manager tells inquest

The Mangatepopo Stream. File photo / Sarah Ivey

An outdoor pursuits field manager told an inquest today he wished an instructor had not taken a group of six students and their teacher into a gorge where they died in a canyoning tragedy.

Hastings coroner Christopher Devonport is holding an inquest in Auckland into the deaths of Elim Christian College students Natasha Bray, Portia McPhail, Tara Gregory, Tom Hsu, Anthony Mulder and Floyd Fernandes, and teacher Tony McClean in the Mangatepopo Gorge near Turangi while they took part in an outdoor adventure course on April 15, 2008.

Kerry Charles Palmer, who was a field manager at the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre (OPC), and who was also involved in the search and rescue operation that day, said he had earlier told the instructor Jodie Sullivan that the river might rise quickly as a lot of rain had fallen.

"I asked her why she was still going into the gorge. She said she wouldn't go far.

"I told her to check the river levels when she got into the gorge. But I wish I'd told her not to go into the gorge," Mr Palmer said.

For the Crown, Ben Vanderkolk asked Mr Palmer if Ms Sullivan was competent, and he confirmed her gorge competency had not been signed off.

Ms Sullivan told the court yesterday she underestimated how fast the river rose in the afternoon as a storm closed in.

Asked today whether there were people in the group who were not strong swimmers, Ms Sullivan agreed but said she was close enough to catch people.

Mr Vanderkolk asked Ms Sullivan if the students knew what the risks were and what would happen to them.

"They knew that jumping into the water was a risk," she said.

A tearful Ms Sullivan asked for an adjournment as she could not go on.

She also broke down yesterday and her lawyer read the rest of her statement.

- NZPA