How Shelley Crooks survived lost in bush

Shelley Crooks survived six weeks lost and injured in West Coast bush by eating bugs and plants, after the ‘‘biggest mistake’’ of her life.

After spending a night at the Punakaiki Camping ground just before Christmas, mother-of-four Crooks, set out to do the Punakaiki trek. She expected the walk to take four days in total.

‘‘I went for a few days and realised I was going in a circle,’’ she told NZME.

‘‘I was immobilised for weeks after I’d run out of food and done damage to my legs.’’

Crooks told NZME she had three tins of baked beans with sausages, three packets of dried noodles, a small tin of condensed milk and 10 sachets of soup. She managed to make that last about two weeks.

‘‘I then had to survive off bugs and plants.’’ Before she went missing, Crooks was last seen in Punakaiki, 44km north of Greymouth, on December 22.

She was found in a distressed state by a conservation volunteer worker last Sunday on the bank of the Fox River, with her shoes in tatters and barely able to speak. Crooks told the volunteer her search beacon had been washed away during a river crossing, along with her sleeping bag.

In her interview with NZME, Crooks said friends had dropped her off at the start of her walk on the Punakaiki track. She arranged to contact them once she finished the expected four-day walk.

She set up camp after walking for 21⁄ hours. Then a conservation worker told her heavy rain and river flooding were forecast. She left the tent and went back to the Punakaiki Camping Ground where she stayed the night. Next morning was clearer and she decided to carry on with the walk.

Once she realised she was working in a circle she ‘‘had to endure the biggest mistake of my life,’’ she told NZME. ‘‘My mistake was I should have let my friends know that I had come out and was going back in.’’

She apologised for the problems she had caused and said she had learnt a lesson she would never forget.