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Searchers believe missing Auckland tramper Irina Yun is dead but will conduct a final search today, weather permitting.
Yesterday, they found Ms Yun's backpack in a treacherous gorge area of the Dart River, below the Dart Hut, in Mt Aspiring National Park, Sergeant Aaron Nicholson, the Wanaka police search and rescue (SAR) coordinator, said.
Ms Yun went missing on New Year's Eve while attempting to tramp the Cascade Saddle track from Mt Aspiring Hut in the West Matukituki Valley, to the Dart Hut on the Dart River.
She was last seen at 9.30am heading up the Cascade track.
"Finding the pack, in its present condition has clearly indicated that it was torn from Ms Yun by the force of the water and that this, coupled with the other work done by search teams, unfortunately confirms our earliest fears that Ms Yun has been caught trying to cross one of the side creeks that bisect the track," Mr Nicholson said.
"Both police and Land SAR regret what was a tragic and avoidable loss of life."
Searchers have little hope of finding Ms Yun's body, he said.
"The gorge area in which the pack was found is basically a huge jumble of massive rocks and white water and there is every chance the body is buried under silt or trapped well below the surface."
Bad weather has hampered the search for Ms Yun, who has lived in New Zealand since coming here five years ago from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.
She climbed in the mountains of her homeland and has visited Mt Aspiring National Park once before.
She left her four-year-old daughter in Auckland where her former partner lives and travelled alone to the South Island on Christmas Day.
Her former partner Oleg Amiton was conducting a private search in the area with a friend and private guide.
Ms Yun ignored advice from the Mt Aspiring hut Department of Conservation ranger not to attempt the route because of bad weather, the Otago Daily Times reported.
- NZPA
