Miracle survival
Cold, hungry and hopelessly lost, Jess O’Connor and Dion Reynolds made camp and hunkered down.
It was a textbook decision for anyone lost in rugged bush and a decision that may have saved their lives.
‘‘They did the right thing . . . they stayed put and they made themselves visible,’’ Nelson-Tasman police search and rescue co-ordinator Sergeant Malcolm York said.
Just before 1pm yesterday, a search helicopter crew spotted smoke coming from a fire the trampers had made at their makeshift campsite.
Swooping down to investigate, the searchers saw the pair waving – and a rescue team was dispatched.
Despite injuries, exposure to the elements, and the lack of food, O’Connor and Reynolds were ‘‘in really good condition’’ and much chattier than expected.
O’Connor, a kayak guide, and Reynolds, a chef, had set off to explore the remote, beautiful and unforgiving Anatori area on Golden Bay’s remote west coast.
However, after leaving on May 9, the pair ran into trouble early on.
Yesterday afternoon, police were still piecing together details of what happened to the pair, who were flown straight to
Nelson Hospital to be assessed after they were rescued.
One of the last people to see them before they set off on their tramp, Heather Simpson, said they told her they were ‘‘heading up the river’’ and had four to six days of food.
It was believed Reynolds and O’Connor became lost within the first days of their trip because of fog.
They also suffered injuries; their progress was slowed after Reynolds hurt his ankle, and O’Connor strained her back in a fall, York said.
O’Connor’s injury meant they could not stray far but they were forced to move to find a source of water at the headwaters of the Fraser Stream, where they remained until they were rescued.
Police described the terrain where the couple were found as ‘‘hostile’’, rugged and remote.
Golden Bay historian and keen tramper Gerard Hindmarsh said the Anatori goldfields had a reputation for being ‘‘pretty vicious country’’.
He said Anatori was a limestone karst landscape, filled with lots of deep chasms and cracks – with the risk of injury as high as getting lost. It was also bitterly cold.
MetService says temperatures reached a minus 8 degrees Celsius near the exposed tops of the area where wind chill was a factor. It also rained, with the heaviest falls on Sunday and Monday, when between 60mm and 115mm fell accompanied by ‘‘quite strong winds’’, a MetService spokesman said.
The alarm was raised on May 18 after the pair failed to return when expected, and a search and rescue operation was mobilised.
Up to 50 people were involved in the search, made up of police, NZ Defence Force, Fire and Emergency NZ, LandSAR, Department of Conservation’s Aoraki/Mt Cook Search and Rescue team, and other volunteers ‘‘who all desperately wanted to return Jessica and Dion safely to their families’’.
During the first week, some clues were found but nothing conclusive.
As the days ticked by, police became increasingly concerned, with heavy rain on the 24th delaying the search and making rescue conditions treacherous.
After being airlifted out on an Air Force helicopter back to Nelson, the ordeal for the pair was over when they were discharged from Nelson Hospital about 6pm yesterday.
After being reunited with Reynolds, his stepfather said he was still feeling emotional.
‘‘It was looking bleak, it really was.’’ He had just made the difficult decision to return home to the North Island while Reynolds’ mum remained in Anatori, and he was just out of Nelson on his way to Picton when he heard the pair had been found.
He rushed to Nelson Hospital and was the first to see Reynolds when he got out of the ambulance, enveloping him in a big hug.
He said the pair had been without food for some time before they were rescued. ‘‘They did it really tough, but they are in high spirits.’’
He said everyone involved with the search had been amazing with their support over the past 19 days.
Police paid tribute to the efforts of the search teams, made up mainly of volunteers, who persisted throughout the search – passing on a ‘‘massive thank you’’ to the volunteer searchers and the wider community.
‘‘It was looking bleak, it really was.’’
Dion Reynolds’ stepfather