A tragic skydiving accident last week won't put off tourists from visiting New Zealand's adventure capital, Queenstown locals say.
Photo: RNZ / Logan Church
Californian Tyler Nii, 27, is presumed dead after a tandem skydive went wrong and he and his instructor hit Lake Wakatipu.
His body has not yet been found, as the area Mr Nii crashed into is thought to be about 250 metres deep.
His instructor was rescued from the water 20 minutes after the jump, with minor bruises.
An investigation into what happened is now underway, and will include reviewing footage retrieved from a GoPro used during the jump.
Business owner, Isabelle Walker, said she had never seen any accident this serious in the tourist resort.
"I actually can't remember anything like that happening here before, there has been the odd jet boat incident but I've never heard about anything with the skydivers," she said.
But Ms Walker said she did not believe the incident would put off tourists.
"To be really honest when you do dangerous things you have to keep things in perspective - 99 percent of the time you are going to be OK but that one percent could be unlucky."
The skydiving company, NZONE, said it had never seen such a serious incident in the 27 years it had been operating.
The worse accident so far was another tandem jump last year that landed two instructors in hospital with serious injuries.
NZONE described the instructor who survived last week's crash as a "tandem master", having completed more than 3000 jumps.
Teacher and jewellery maker Alex Moore said he did not see last week's accident take place, but he had seen similar tragedies before.
"We were at the market last year and there was a paraglider who was flying over and crashed at the Queenstown Primary School and died from that ... that was pretty scary because a lot of people saw it."
However, Mr Moore said he still believed thrill seekers would keep visiting, as it was not often that an incident occurred.
"I guess that's the nature of the business, for the amount of people who do it the amount of accidents are very slim," he said.
"The thrill seekers will always be there."
Queenstown business owner, Michelle Burford. Photo: RNZ / Logan Church
Another business owner, Michelle Burford, who sells handcrafted hand bags and purses to tourists, did not think the accident would have any impact on Queenstown's tourism industry.
"I can't see it stopping, just look around there is still lots of people here," she said. "It's an adventure tourist town and things happen."
The police dive squad will begin their search again today.
Otago Lakes-Central area commander Inspector Olaf Jensen said the dive squad would be operating off a barge at the Jack's Point area of the lake, about a kilometre off shore.
Mr Jensen said they would spend most of today setting up sonar equipment to help with the search for Mr Nii's body.
"A decision will be made later today whether the sonar can be deployed. This will also be dependent on weather conditions," Mr Jensen said.
Mr Jensen said other lake users should stay away from the search area.
He said weather conditions were good today and there was wind forecast for tomorrow.
