American hunters rescued - Dehydrated, forced to eat raw meat
Two American hunters had to be rescued, plucked from tricky, rocky terrain in the Upper South Wye Creek area early on Tuesday last week (10 February) after becoming exhausted, dehydrated and disoriented with insufficient food and water.
Two specialist Wakatipu Alpine Cliff Rescue Team volunteers flew in with a party of four in a Heliworks helicopter at about 7am after the father and son tourists called Police for help on a cellphone.
Cliff Rescue coordinator Karl Johnson says the pair – the father in his mid-40s and the son in his early 20s, hadn’t been carrying enough water and couldn’t walk due to dehydration in the hot temperatures. “They’d become so dehydrated and disoriented that they hadn’t realised the river was only 20m away,” he says.
“They set up camp and called Police. We then went in and long lined them out of very rocky terrain.”
The pair, who’d been hunting with a bow and arrow, had very little food with them but had caught a red spiker stag so Johnson says they ate some of that meat raw just to get them through.
“They were a little unprepared with their fitness and lack of water and food, a bit underprepared for what they were doing.”
The pair had only intended being in there for a day but that had turned into 24 hours.
“It’s about overseas people in particular again underestimating the terrain and conditions they’re heading into and they got caught out.” Johnson says it was “steep, bluffy terrain, hot and windy” and they just weren’t prepared with enough water and food.
“Just be prepared for what you’re heading into,” he says.
Fortunately, the pair were carrying a tent and so were forced to bunk down overnight before calling Police for help.
The rescuers were lowered in on a strop into the tricky terrain to airlift the two men out.
“This just highlights the need for visitors especially to be particularly aware of what conditions they’re heading into in this area and to take all the right gear and supplies,” Johnson says.
He says they may have been experienced hunters in their part of the United States, but conditions are different here.
Neither of the men required medical treatment and were flown back to Queenstown to recover from their ordeal.
