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A Christchurch rabbi wants to stop an autopsy on an Israeli tramper whose body was found near the Mueller Glacier in the Southern Alps.
Rabbi Menachem Goldstein, director of the Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch sect in New Zealand, has been acting as a liaison between local officials and the Israeli Embassy in Australia.
He said on a news website run by the New York-based sect of Hasidic Judaism that
he was working to prevent a routine autopsy which Jewish law viewed in most cases as an unnecessary desecration of the body.
But police said yesterday that an autopsy was likely to be done this morning.
The tramper died after walking off a track into dangerous terrain in the Aoraki-Mt Cook National Park. He had ignored safety advice given to him before he left.
The body of the tramper, aged in his mid-20s, was recovered by alpine searchers yesterday morning. His family in Israel was to be told of his death late yesterday afternoon.
The man fell a considerable distance down sheer rock cliffs, said Department of Conservation area manager Richard McNamara.
He was last seen at the Mueller Hut at 8.15am on Monday and was due out of the park that day. His body was spotted on Tuesday, but it could not be reached until yesterday because of high winds.
Mr McNamara said the man arrived in the Mt Cook area in a rental van "looking for some of the more well-used tracks" around the glaciers.
He was given a briefing lasting about 40 minutes on equipment, routes and safety, before heading off on the popular Mueller Track.
"He's decided to go off to explore another unmarked route and come to grief. It's a tragedy."
- additional reporting by NZPA
