Climber waves to rescuers

ANorth Shore kitten is down to eight lives after spending two nights stuck in a drain pipe. Bree Wesselink said her family’s 7-month-old kitten Purdy went missing on Tuesday night.

For nearly two days the family could hear him meow, but could not find him.

“It was awful,” Wesselink said. “We felt terrible, helpless knowing that he was stuck somewhere. We were all crying.”

On Wednesday, the family and some kind neighbours spent most of the day hunting around the house, following his meow.

They then thought he could be in the wall, so Wesselink rang her friend Corin Revell, who works for construction company Canam.

“I started cutting holes into the walls and ceiling, making an absolute

HWatch the video at nzherald.co.nz mess,” Revell said. “But he wasn’t there either.”

Then Revell noticed the drain pipe leading down from the roof. “I asked Bree if Purdy spent much time on the roof, and she said he went up there all of the time. I was like, ‘I can guarantee you he has fallen into the drain pipe’.

“Because of the echo it sounded like he was really close to the entrance, but he was actually about 18 metres away.”

By then it was about 10pm and although the Birkenhead Fire Brigade came to assist, they could not reach him down the 90mm diameter PVC pipe.

But yesterday the team at Drain Ninjas came to the rescue.

They found Purdy stuck in the stormwater system using a CCTV camera, and managed to guide him towards a drain grate by the street where they were able to reach in and pull him out.

Drain technician Troy Gorst said it was lucky the drain was empty and that it hadn’t rained. “He was looking straight up the downpipe, so if it rained he would have drowned.” An Australian climber who has been stuck on Mt Aspiring since Tuesday was found standing and waving as rescue helicopters arrived last evening.

Rescue Coordination Centre NZ Search and Rescue mission coordinator Mike Roberts said “it’s extraordinary”.

The man, a 29-year-old Australian Army officer, was found waving down the rescue team when the Southern Lakes and Mt Aspiring helicopters arrived on a plateau at Quarterdeck Pass at 5pm.

He had “slight frostbite”. A Wanaka Alpine Cliff Rescue team and paramedic are staying on the 2280m pass with the climber who was found to be “in good spirits”, Roberts said.

“The group will be evacuated [today] dependent on the weather. His next of kin have been notified.”

The crew had warm food and drink.

The rescue centre said that the mission should serve as a warning for trampers and climbers in winter that they need to be properly prepared and carry a beacon.

The man set off his beacon at the edge of the Bonar Glacier at 12.15pm on Tuesday.

Rescuers were encouraged by movement of the emergency beacon a short distance to the northeast about 2.30pm on Wednesday.

However, searchers were very concerned for the man in his late 20s because he was lightly equipped.

Earlier attempts to reach the climber were thwarted by bad weather. The temperature at 1800m was between -2C and zero.