Carterton pair survive bush ordeal
Wairarapa Times Age
Two Carterton men on a Sunday trout fishing expedition ended up spending a cold, miserable and hungry night in the bush, sparking a helicopter search.
Police reported the 35-year-old and the 19-year-old shared a quad bike to drive up the Mangatarere Valley in the afternoon, reaching the Carrington Creek entrance to the stream, where they left the bike and walked up the creek for about two hours.
When darkness caught up with them, and it started to rain the two men couldn’t find their way through the bush so they hunkered down for the night. When they failed to arrive back home family members went looking for them and alerted police.
Senior Sergeant Carolyn Watson said a helicopter was summoned to do a fly-over search but neither men was seen. Once daylight came the two began walking out and were spotted. Mrs Watson said both were “very cold, tired but uninjured.” She said their experience again reinforced the need for people on fishing, hunting or tramping expeditions to give accurate details to others of where they intend to go. The area searched was not the area where the two men had gone, she said.
People should also ensure they had the proper equipment, so if circumstances changed, they could spend a night in the open without too much discomfort.