A spokeswoman for the prime minister said Ms Clark (left) and Mr Davis had been on a skiing holiday in the area for two days. -- REUTERS
WELLINGTON - NEW Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark was involved in desperate efforts to resuscitate her mountain guide and close friend as he lay dying in a remote alpine hut after a skiing trip, police said on Friday.
The guide, former nuclear physicist Gottlieb Otto Braun-Elwert, 59, collapsed with an apparent heart attack after he returned with Ms Clark and her party from a day's skiing at Lake Tekapo near Christchurch on Thursday.
Police Area Commander Dave Gaskin said members of Clark's party, which included two cabinet ministers and her husband Peter Davis, tried in vain to resuscitate Braun-Elwert.
Speaking by phone from the snow-bound hut, Mr Dave Crow from the New Zealand Mountain Guides Association told Australian radio that Ms Clark and her party performed CPR on Mr Braun-Elwert.
'They did an incredible job of trying to resuscitate him, they worked on him for over two hours', Mr Crow said.
'After two hours they were advised that there was really no point continuing with their efforts'.
Poor weather blocked initial attempts by police and search and rescue volunteers to reach the group, but Ms Clark was later rescued by snow mobile and four-wheel-drive.
She then made a treacherous night-time trip from the hut at Mt Gerald Station in the Two Thumbs Range to the town of Lake Tekapo to spend time with Mrs Braun-Elwert's widow.
'She made a special effort to come out in the dark last night, it was probably a bit scary coming down the mountain in the snow, partially on a skidoo', Mrs Ann Braun-Elwert told Radio New Zealand.
She said her husband, a professional mountain guide for more than 30 years, had died doing what he loved but that a heart attack was the last thing she expected as he was extremely fit and active.
A spokeswoman for the prime minister said Ms Clark and Mr Davis had been on a skiing holiday in the area for two days.
Mr Braun-Elwert had spoken of Ms Clark and Mr Davis as his most regular clients and had guided them on more than a dozen occasions, on either cross-country skiing or climbing expeditions in New Zealand, South America and other countries.
'It takes her (Clark) about 24 hours to tune out of her special work environment, and then she's like everybody else', Mr Braun-Elwert said in an interview in 2000.
Police were expected to try to helicopter his body out Friday, along with the five others in the group. -- AFP
