It’s likely an overseas tourist, whose body was found on an Arrowtown walking track last month, died from hypothermia.
Wai Ming Lai, 51, from Hong Kong, was found about a kilometre into the Sawpit Gully track by a member of the public about 9.30am on October 22.
Since then, Queenstown police have been working tirelessly to ascertain his movements prior to his death, with a silver, hard-shell suitcase he was travelling with still to be recovered.
Lai, who arrived in New Zealand on July 27, was meant to have left on October 18, but didn’t board his flight.
His passport, found in a backpack he had with him at the time of his death, expired on October 26.
Police believe he’d stayed at a backpackers in Queenstown for a week, before spending the week before his death in Wānaka, where he used buses to get around, but it’s still not clear when he arrived back in the resort, and there’s no further information on where he was staying.
Detective senior sergeant Malcolm Inglis says that’s ‘‘the biggest blank we have’’.
CCTV footage from around Arrowtown’s still being gathered and reviewed to try to ascertain when he arrived in the village.
While there’s ‘‘nothing suspicious’’ about his death, Inglis says based on the preliminary results of the post-mortem, it’s likely he was out in the cold for some time.
Cops are interested in hearing from anyone who may have seen Lai in the Arrowtown area on October 21.
Next of kin have now been contacted, and arrangements are being made to repatriate Lai’s body, Inglis says.
