‘I’ve been looking for you guys’ — trampers’ relief
Things started to go awry when fog rolled in . . . and it got much worse
‘I’ve been looking for you guys.” Those were the first words Jessica O’Connor and her tramping partner Dion Reynolds heard from anyone other than each other in nearly three weeks. The welcome exchange marked the end of an ordeal which the two trampers were lucky to see the other side of.
The pair, both 23, entered Kahurangi National Park in Golden Bay on May 8 for a tramp that was supposed to last less than a week.
Instead they’d find themselves lost for 18 days in bush described by one search and rescue member as “insanely rugged” and “dangerously beautiful”.
Reynolds told RNZ things started to go awry when fog rolled in and left them disoriented.
He realised they were walking in a loop around a manuka forest after he recognised one of his footprints in the mud.
As the pair hunted for fresh water, they each suffered minor injuries.
“I twisted and sprained my ankle . . . we got to a waterfall that was 15m to 20m high and we just looked at each other and were like ‘we can’t go down that, we need to stop and go back up the hill and stop’.”
Once again, they made camp and waited it out but Jessica had also injured her back after falling while trying to get water, Reynolds said.
They spent 13 days without food, but the “saving grace” was a stream near the gully, he said.
“That’s what kept us alive.”
When they noticed a rescue helicopter flying overhead, they starting building fires to draw attention to themselves.
“I’ve never been so goddamn happy in my life . . . First chopper came over and saw us and Jess went over the quarry and started waving at it.
“Then the medic came down . . . At that point I knew we were saved.”
It was a miracle they were spotted — pilot Loic “Frenchie” Ifrah said the chopper would have had to be within 50-100 metres of the smoke to see it, and the sun would have needed to be right overhead for the crew to see down into the hole in the tree canopy.
Air Force medic Corporal Jason Denharder was lowered down, and was relieved to see the trampers get up and walk towards him.
“I got down to the ground and once the helicopter moved away I said ‘I’ve been looking for you guys’. They were quite overjoyed. Yeah, that’s when they came in and gave me a cuddle, I guess,” he said.
After the initial joy, the trampers “realised the gravity of the situation”, he said. “That’s when the emotions started coming out for Jessica.”
The trampers’ first words to Denharder were: “I’m so glad to see you.”
From there it wasn’t long until they were in the chopper and on their way back to civilisation with chocolate bars to tide them over until they could eat a proper meal.
Reynolds and O’Connor were taken to Nelson Hospital and discharged a few hours later.
Land Search and Rescue Golden Bay president Steve Cottle was with O’Connor’s parents when the good news came in, and said it was the highlight of his time in the job.
“It’s the best feeling I have ever had in search and rescue. It’s what we do it for.”
Cottle said Kahurangi National Park was one of the harshest areas in New Zealand, and described it as “insanely” remote and rugged.
Treacherous terrain meant there were some parts even locals would not go.
In the end, there were three main things that helped the trampers to survive — their gear, background knowledge of how to survive in the bush, and their access to fresh water.