Search continues for missing tramper Stephanie Simpson

Thursday, 13 February 2020

British woman Stephanie Simpson was overdue from a hike and hadn't been seen since Friday last week. (Video first published 12 February 2020).

Two dog teams and 16 searchers are scouring part of Mt Aspiring National park on the third day of the search for missing British tramper Stephanie Simpson.

The 32-year-old was reported missing on Monday after she failed to return from a hike and did not arrive at work.

Efforts are focusing around the Pyke and Fantail Creek areas, police said in a statement.

A thermal-equipped drone was used in the search area overnight.

**READ MORE:

The body of British tramper Stephanie Simpson has been found after she failed to return from a hike in Mt Aspiring National Park.

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Simpson's brother-in-law, Sam Hazelton, told the NZ Herald her family in the UK were 'hoping upon hope' that she would be found.

'You can't imagine, it's pretty awful. The hardest thing, I think, is just the not-knowing.'

The search for Simpson has entered a third day.

Simpson was an extremely fit, experienced tramper. She had done triathlons, marathons and hiked for many years in the UK and Australia, he told the NZ Herald.

Simpson, from Essex, has been based in Wanaka, while on a working holiday in New Zealand.

Her boss, Doug Peddle, contacted police on Monday morning when she failed to turn up to her job as a landscape gardener at Doug the Gardener in Wanaka.