PAUSING to grin at the camera as she kayaks down a New Zealand river, Karen Aim's diary is typical of countless internet diaries from young British backpackers enjoying their gap year.
In a picture posted on her Bebo profile, Karen Aim enjoyed a kayaking trip last year in New Zealand.
Yesterday, however, posted among the 26-year-old Scot's breathless updates and holiday snaps, envious messages from friends have been replaced with ones of disbelief and sorrow. As news of her brutal murder filtered through, tributes and condolences from grieving friends, fellow travellers and even backpackers she had never met were added to her Bebo website.
Last night, her parents Brian and Peggy Aim, and her brother Alan, tried to come to terms with their loss, in Kirkwall, Orkney. Police in New Zealand described her murder as a "ghastly attack".
Just hours before her death, Ms Aim, who was on a working holiday, was socialising in the lively bars of Taupo, a picturesque lakeside town in the heart of the North Island.
It appears she was assaulted, suffering horrific head injuries, while walking home. She was found by chance in the early hours of yesterday by police investigating a school break-in. As they searched the grounds, their torch beams illuminated the dying woman.
An ambulance was called and, according to reports, she managed to whisper her name to police. She died shortly after arriving at the hospital. It was not known last night whether a weapon had been used or if she had been sexually assaulted.
Ms Aim had been working in a resort called Wairakei in the town. She had fallen in love with the country during an three-month holiday in October 2006 and had returned just eight weeks ago. A friend described her as "the sweetest person I ever met". "She had come back to stay," the friend said. "But she had only been here two months. She did not deserve this."
A woman leaves flowers for Karen Aim at the site of her death near Taupo's Nui-a-Tia College on Friday. Picture: Ross Land/Getty
In recent entries to her website, Ms Aim described how she had taken a job in a glass-blowing gallery in Taupo.
She said she was sharing a home with a New Zealander and an Irish girl, and was enjoying her adventure. In a video clip posted on the site, Free Falling by the singer Tom Petty accompanies footage of her descent on a recent tandem skydive.
As she lands, high on the adrenaline rush, she claps and rushes towards the camera lens as if to kiss it.
Another entry, written just after her arrival in Auckland on 28 October, reads: "Hey dudes, just wee note to say that's me back in bonny Auckland again, landed just an hour ago … grand flights over, bought really cool wee digital camera … still buzzing fi (from] the adrenaline tho I think cos only had about 3 hours kip in last 2 days."
Her murder came just hours after Rick Cooper, the mayor of Taupo, had announced a council plan to improve security in the town.
It is the first murder in Taupo in more than a year and happened on the eve of the A1 Grand Prix motor-racing event, which is expected to attract 40,000 visitors and will be broadcast to more than 150 countries. Last night, Mr Cooper said: "We are absolutely gutted and heart- broken that some scumbag has done this terrible thing."
He added: "We are in shock. We don't have these sort of problems here. The last murder here was 13 months ago, and that was a domestic incident."
Normally, Taupo has a population of 25,000, but on the eve of a major road-race there were 50,000 people in the town, he said.
Detective senior sergeant Greg Turner, who is heading the inquiry, said Ms Aim's family in Scotland were "devastated". Police were also speaking to relatives in nearby Manawatu and her flatmates in Taupo.
He said: "What we have here is a real whodunit – we have a long way to go with this one."
Due to the ferocity of the attack, additional officers have been drafted into the investigation team from surrounding towns and a specialist search team has also arrived from Auckland. More investigators from Wellington are expected.
Detectives have established that Ms Aim had spent the evening visiting several bars and is understood to have left Mulligan's Bar in central Taupo at about midnight on Wednesday, setting out to walk back to the flat she shared with her friends.
It is not known if she left the bar alone.
Yesterday, police were making door-to-door inquiries and a large area, including the Taupo Nui-a-Tia College, remained cordoned off.
The investigation is focusing on possible links between smashed windows at the school and the attack.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office confirmed the death of a Briton, saying: "Police are treating the death as suspicious. We are providing consular assistance."
DANGERS OF TRAVELA ROUND-the-world adventure is a rite of passage for many young people. However, a series of brutal murders have highlighted the dangers of backpacking.
In November, Meredith Kercher, 21, a language student from London, was discovered with her throat cut at her flat in Perugia, Italy.
Also last year, Alexander York, a tourist from Essex, was found guilty of manslaughter after stabbing Rudy Boa, 28, from Culloden, in Australia in 2006.
Peter Falconio, 28, from Huddersfield, disappeared in the Australian outback in July 2001 while travelling with his girlfriend, Joanne Lees. Bradley John Murdoch was convicted of his murder in December 2005.
Caroline Stuttle, 19, a gap-year backpacker from York, was robbed and pushed off a bridge in Queensland in April 2002 by Ian Previte, 35, a drug addict.
Kirsty Jones, 23, from Tredomen near Brecon, was found raped and strangled in her room at a guesthouse in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in August 2000. No-one has been convicted.
Ivan Milat, 63, killed seven travellers – including Joanne Walters, of Maesteg, Wales and Caroline Clarke, of Northumberland, both 22 – between 1989 and 1992 in Australia.
POPULAR DESTINATIONMORE backpackers visit New Zealand from the UK than any other country.
In 2005, some 55, 216 British backpackers made the journey – 23.8 per cent of those registered by tourism officials. Just 7.3 per cent were from Germany and 4.8 per cent from Japan.
Britons spent £61 million in 2005 – about £35 per day, two-thirds more than Australian visitors – and stayed an average of 30.5 days. Some 54.6 per cent travelled to New Zealand alone, up from 44 per cent in 1998.
The Lonely Planet guidebook describes New Zealand as "a country of rare seismic beauty: glacial mountains, fast-flowing rivers, deep, clear lakes, hissing geysers and boiling mud."
