For Morrinsville man, Murray, a love of hiking takes him to the beautiful remote spots of New Zealand, but in July the unpredictable winter weather made for a very treacherous adventure for the experienced hiker and his two students.
Having planned a two-night hike during the school holidays, and constantly checking weather reports, Murray and his students could see there would be a window of opportunity in the weather, so continued as planned in preparing for their hike.
“We met in the small rural settlement of Kiwitahi and did a gear check of supplies, food, thermals and wet weather gear. I familiarised the boys with the PLB (personal locator beacon), and we tested it.
“We checked the map and route, all was in order, and we made sure we had the option of cutting the hike short and call Pip, my wife, for an early pick up if we needed it,” Murray says.
“The first day of tramping to Motutapere Hut went as planned. As did our second day to Rereatukahia Hut. However, on the night of the second day, it rained heavily.
“Leaving the Hut on our final day of hiking we arrived at the first of two fords, we locked arms and the three of us crossed it easily.
“We then arrived at the second ford; it had a bigger swifter flow.
“After evaluating it, we decided we could manage a crossing, again we locked arms and held on to our walking poles. I was positioned upstream to take maximum force. At around 8 metres across, we entered the ford and quickly reached waist-deep water, and with the extraordinary force, we lost our footing.
“Two of us were swept downstream about 50-100 metres but managed to stay together.
“We landed on a low small shingle island in the middle of the stream. With only bumps and bruises, we were ok, but there was no sign of our third hiking companion. I knew he hadn't swept past us.” says Murray of the frightening situation they had found themselves in.
Now trapped on the small island with the possibility of rising flood water, Murray considered the possibility of serious injury or death so made the 111 call to emergency services.
Unable to hear clearly due to the noise of the rushing water, Murray activated his PLB and the Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter was shortly on its way.
“We finally found a suitable ponga log and angled it into an overhanging tree. We managed to climb off the island and onto the bank, leaving our packs on the island. We tracked back along the riverbank and were overjoyed to find our third companion, uninjured and okay.
“It was so comforting to hear the chopper coming up the valley,” says Murray.
“The crew were so skilled and winched each of us up and over pine trees to a clearing in nearby farmland on the safe side of the stream and close to where we were to end our hike.
“All accounted for, we were medically checked for hypothermia and injuries and feeling very lucky. Walking out to Pip’s van at our pickup point we were so thankful to think that if it wasn’t for the Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter being able to get to us in such a tricky location, we could have had a very different outcome,” says Murray.