After he booked a trip that required the use of a “ice axe,” leaving the couple trapped on New Zealand’s highest mountain, an Australian woman barred her partner from making travel arrangements for their upcoming vacation.
Keenan Kulisa-Tunhla and Evelyn Loh, two tourists, have camped out on Aoraki/Mount Cook because their only paths back to Queenstown were blocked by -12C temperatures, torrential rain, and snow.
The resort he had planned for their stay halfway up the top is 1,500 meters higher than Mount Kosciuszko, and official guidance advises “mountaineering experience” to get there.
Mr. Kulisa-Tunhla did not check the weather before planning the excursion, and he appeared unprepared for both the challenging task he unintentionally assigned his girlfriend and the challenging weather.
The mountainous national park’s treacherous four-hour, rocky, zigzagging, steep track trek to Mueller Hut is described on the official website.
The path calls for a high level of mountaineering proficiency, including using an avalanche transceiver, probe, and shovel while traveling on ice and snow with an ice axe and crampons.
According to stuff.co.nz, the holiday was planned to honor her graduation from the University of Melbourne’s biomedicine program.
The gorgeous resort that Mr. Kulisa-Tunhla was aiming for is only a 30-minute drive from Mt. Olliver, Sir Edmund Hillary’s maiden summit.
That was before to Hillary becoming the first person to summit Everest, the highest mountain in the world.
Because he “didn’t do [the] research,” Ms. Loh pledged she would “absolutely not” allow her boyfriend to plan another vacation for them.
The pair was strongly discouraged from making the climb, and he admitted not verifying the forecast.
Despite enjoying the trip, they decided to take a safer route up the Hooker Valley track and spent the night in a cabin.
Ms. Loh is hesitant to take a similar route again.
As Ms. Loh stated to stuff.co.nz, “It’s not my kind of thing.”
They made it back to Mount Cook Village after descending the mountain, but they are now stranded at the Aoraki Court Motel.
Despite attempting to find a ride out of the freezing area via social media due to storms that included heavy rain and snow closing all roads out of the area, Ms. Loh and Mr. Kulisa-Tunhla are still stuck there.
She complained, “Bad things just keep happening.”
When the roads reopen, the couple hopes to leave the national park and return to Queenstown in time for a lower-altitude excursion in the breathtaking Milford Sound.