Relatives blocked from Erebus visit 

Anger is mounting among families who lost relatives in the Erebus disaster because they are not allowed to visit the area.

The son of a man killed in the disaster wants to be allowed to travel to Antarctica and is annoyed Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters took his partner on an official visit when he hasn't been able to go.

Flight 901 crashed into Mt Erebus 29 years ago, killing 257 people, including John Houghton whose son Eric was just nine when he lost his dad.

"It was a horrific thing to happen to a child...I suppose it was made all the worse by the fact that it was a national tragedy as well," Eric Houghton says.

He wants to go to Antarctica to pay his respects but requests for help from the government have been unsuccessful.

Houghton is outraged Peters was allowed to take his partner to the ice on an official visit.

"There have been an awful lot of people go down there in various guises...while I have nothing at issue with that it seems odd that no provision has been made for family members to go," Houghton says.

Pip Collins whose father Jim Collins captained the fatal flight also believes family members should go.

"This was one of New Zealand's major catastrophes and it would be a shame if an opportunity wasn't provided for people - not all 257 families in one foul swoop but opportunities offered over a lifetime perhaps," she says.

The Airline Pilots Association is planning to lobby government to get family members there for the 30th anniversary of the tragedy next year.

"If we get the public behind us we'll achieve our goal," president Mark Rammell says.

But it seems the government has no plans to give families access. While there is a memorial three kilometres from where the plane broke up, the crash site itself is off limits because it has been declared a tomb.

A spokesman for Peters says while he sympathises with family members the logistical difficulties in getting them there are not easily overcome.

But Houghton is determined to see the place where his father died and to "feel what he experienced in the last few minutes of his life".