‘The gods were on their side’: Mother’s faith never wavered
Kathleen Ludlow finally heard the words she wanted to, but feared she never would.
‘‘Hi Mum, I’m alive,’’ her son Dion Reynolds said from Nelson Hospital after being plucked from the Kahurangi National Park with his tramping partner Jessica O’Connor.
The pair had been lost in the bush for 19 days. Ludlow said Dion was on the phone to someone else when she finally made contact through her partner Mike Shirley who was at Nelson Hospital.
‘‘I said: ‘I don’t care put him on. It could have been talking to the Queen – I didn’t care’.
‘‘Just hearing him say: ‘Mum I’m alive was amazing ... just hearing your son’s voice was amazing.’ ‘‘
Call it a mother’s intuition, Ludlow said she woke up on Wednesday with a good feeling.
It was a ‘‘beautiful day’’ and she thought ‘‘hopefully this is the day and sure enough it was the day.’’
Ludlow said she had stayed near the search area in the Anatori area of Golden Bay as she had not wanted to leave. She had been there for days, praying for her son to come home.
Her partner Mike was heading back to Levin to ‘‘keep the home fires burning’’.
‘‘There was just something telling me I couldn’t go,’’ Ludlow said.
‘‘I couldn’t have imagined what they were going through up there.’’
She said she had never given up hope her son would be found alive, as she knew he had the knowledge to survive in the bush.
‘‘I did have faith, if anybody was going to come out it was him. From a young age we taught him bush skills because of where we come from.’’
Ludlow said the pair had gone a long time without food. They both had water and were able to keep hydrated.
She estimated her son had lost about 20kg; ‘‘when I hugged him he was skin and bones’’.
Her son had bush skills from being raised in the Tararua Ranges near Levin – but that terrain was ‘‘a bit more forgiving’’.
Jess and Dion did the right thing by staying put in one spot.
Ludlow was staying at The Outpost in Golden Bay – with owners Greg and Rose – who she said were the most amazing people.
‘‘I wouldn’t have been able to get through this without the help of Greg and Rose - they kept us all grounded’’.
Ludlow said the first thing she did when she found out her son was safe was go and thank the search team.
‘‘I knew he was in good hands. I just broke down crying. To all those people, there is nothing in my worldly being that can repay
them’’.
Being reunited with her son and being able to physically touch him was amazing.
‘‘Just to touch his face and hug him ...’’
Searchers kept telling her they would bring her son back.
‘‘That’s what they all kept saying; ‘They will bring him out’.’’
She understood Jess and Dion had heard a helicopter searching for them previously and had not given up. The bush was so dense and smoke previously had drifted down the valley and it was hard to get it above the bushline, she said.
‘‘They knew people were out there looking for them, but they couldn’t move. Yesterday they heard the helicopter again, and they made that fire.
‘‘Yesterday the gods were on their side and the weather pushed the smoke up where the searchers were, which was amazing.’’
Ludlow said her son’s spirits were pretty high when he was rescued, and after he was discharged from hospital they went out for pizza and a beer to celebrate.
She said waiting for news of her son had been hard, and her partner Mike had been her rock.
‘‘My meltdowns were quite extreme, with every night that went by and every day that went by.’’
Yesterday they planned to go and see Jess and her parents, and finally get to meet them.
‘‘I can’t imagine what her mother went through’’.
Ludlow said she was heading back to the North Island today, but in the meantime she was not going to let her son go far.
‘‘I’m just going to hug him and enjoy him, until it’s time to go home.’’