Snow trapped tourist in ‘cosy’ hut

‘‘She made signs out of the snow about seeking help.’’ Inspector Olaf Jensen

A desperate Czech woman made help signs in the snow during a month trapped alone in a remote Routeburn Track hut after her partner fell to his death.

The woman broke into a warden’s hut on the track near Queenstown, where she stayed until her rescue on Wednesday afternoon.

Otago Lakes Central area commander Inspector Olaf Jensen said it took the woman three days to walk the 2 kilometres from where her partner died to the Lake Mackenzie Hut.

There, she broke into the warden’s hut, where there was food, gas and firewood to keep herself warm. She had minor injuries and possible hypothermia, Jensen said. There was a radio in the hut but she could not get it to work.

Because of her injuries, the heavy snow, her experience and the avalanche risk, she decided to stay put, Jensen said.

But no-one came past for the almost five weeks she was there.

While the pair, aged in their late 20s and early 30s, had tramping experience and were reasonably prepared when they left Glenorchy on July 24, they had no locator beacon, Jensen said.

It was not until the Czech consulate raised concerns with New Zealand officials that the alarm was raised on Wednesday.

Police and a Land Search and Rescue (SAR) team found the couple’s car in the Glenorchy car park on Wednesday. It appeared to have been untouched for some time. The helicopter crew who picked up the stranded woman on Wednesday afternoon described her as ‘‘ecstatic’’ to see them.

Jensen said the pair had got stuck in ‘‘extreme conditions’’.

‘‘They had become disoriented and were off the track. The snow was significantly deep and had covered [the markers],’’ he said.

At the hut, she was desperate to be saved, he said. ‘‘She made signs out of the snow about seeking help.’’

Police were reconstructing how her partner died. Indications were it was from a fall, Jensen said.

The woman managed to get to him but he died soon after.

Yesterday she was said to be doing ‘‘really well’’ considering her ordeal.

Jensen said they hoped to complete the body recovery by helicopter by nightfall yesterday. The man’s death was not suspicious.

The pair had been in New Zealand since January, travelling and working. Trampers said that during the time of the woman’s ordeal, the track was covered in up to 1 metre of snow either side of the remote Lake Mackenzie hut where the woman was holed up.

Metservice issued daily snowfall warnings for the area in the nine days from July 24 – the day the couple set out from Glenorchy.

The forecaster has issued four more since.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) had warned trampers of an avalanche risk for those entering the Great Walks track from The Divide.

Heavy snow made the Harris Saddle treacherous for those heading in from Glenorchy.

The woman told police her partner fell down a steep slope on July 28. Conservation Department spokeswoman Robyn Orchard understood the woman broke into the Lake Mackenzie warden’s hut. She could not say what supplies were inside.

Vladka Kennett, who translated for the woman as she spoke to police yesterday, said she was doing ‘‘really well’’.

Her family overseas had been informed, said Kennett, who is the New Zealand honorary consul for the Czech Republic.

Otago Tramping and Mountaineering Club president Richard Forbes said the woman could have survived reasonably comfortably in the warden’s hut as they were stocked year-round.

The hut had solar and gas facilities, a fireplace, water, maps and even a mountain radio, Forbes said. ‘‘In the winter though, that’s all turned off.

‘‘They’re a small little hut; they’re quite cosy.’’ There may have been some food in the hut, he said. Forbes was in the Routeburn on a club trip last weekend.

DOC had advised them not to go to Lake Mackenzie Hut because of the snow and avalanche risk.

They went to the Falls Hut from the Glenorchy end instead.

Heavy snow in recent weeks may have kept other trampers away too.

Heliworks general manager Richard Mills, whose crew picked the stranded woman up on Wednesday, said she was ‘‘ecstatic’’ to see them.

Mills said the situation would have been different if the couple had a personal locator beacon and left their details with DOC.

Had the couple filled in the intentions book, a search would have started weeks ago.

The track follows the Routeburn Gorge, along the Routeburn River, and usually takes trampers three days to complete. There is no cellphone coverage.