There has not been a lot of good news over the past few months but on Wednesday, two trampers missing in the Kahurangi National Park have been found after 19 days.
Dion Reynolds and Jessica O'Connor, both aged 23, were located on Wednesday afternoon after telling rescuers they got lost in fog not long after setting off on May 9 when the country was still in lockdown.
Reynolds is understood to have injured his ankle, and O'Connor, her back in a fall. A smoke signal alerted rescuers to the pair's location, where they had moved to get closer to water.
"A great result. A huge team effort, a lot of people involved," Sergeant Malcolm York, who led the police search and rescue, told Checkpoint.
"A very challenging search but the team was excellent, we did the right things and we found them in our search area."
He said it was a great survival story by Reynolds and O'Connor, who did the right things, which kept them alive.
"It's my understanding from comments they've made to us that they ended up in a very nasty area, on the side of Fraser stream – steep and rugged country.
"One of our search helicopters today was flying a search pattern in the area and they saw some smoke.
"They've flown in to have a look and seen a couple of happy looking faces waving up at them."
Sergeant York had not met up with the pair but said they are in very good condition, "considering the time they've been out in the wilderness, and the lack of food, but they are at the hospital at the moment being assessed."
He said when they were found their food supplies were gone.
"There's been quite a number of days without any food.
"We had specialist help from New Zealand Defence Force looking at their survivability... and as time goes on that always wanes, but in this case we had good weather, and we had fit young people, and that those factors have led us to this great result.
"The fact that they have survived this ordeal illustrates they did have the right equipment, because without that equipment you would not survive it.
"We haven't been into look at all their equipment in detail yet, but I can just ascertain from the survival story that they had the right equipment to keep them alive.
"The terrain was pretty rough. It's just the kind of place you don't really go to unless you're lost or in trouble, apart from maybe the odd hunter.
"It's approximately 10-12km from the sea and up a very rugged back country, leading up to the Mt Stevens range."
Even though the pair have returned the operation is still ongoing as troops and search people are still out in the area, who will be spending the night out there, York said.
The pair went on the walk on May 9, he said. New Zealand's lockdown level 3 restrictions did not loosen to level 2 until May 14.
"Covid – although we're still very much fighting that battle – hasn't been the focus of my last two weeks, it's been the focus to find these people and that's what I'm really happy about," York said.
NZ Defence Force will be flying out the remaining searchers from remote parts of Kahurangi National Park on Thursday morning, he said.
"I can see there'll be a few parties in the bush tonight, they probably won't have any refreshments with them but they'll be smiling when they have their cuppa tea tonight."
The most challenging issue of the search was how remote the terrain is, York said.
"It's very remote from civilisation, from the modern technology that we use. So it's taken a massive effort to get a system up and running, and I've really got to thank Fire and Emergency New Zealand for that, for their assistance. Without their assistance we wouldn't have got that technology put together."
When the time is right, police will interview Reynolds and O'Connor, he said. "A search and rescue operation like this is a mystery for us, we've not known what's happened to them. And we've spent a huge amount of work, a lot of people working on trying to ascertain where they've gone.
"It's fantastic for us to be able to now get their story and place it over what we were doing to try and find them. So it's just a fantastic result.
"We've had a huge amount of resources, a huge amount of people. From drones to dogs to, very expensive NZ Defence Force helicopters."
He said tonight he'll be celebrating at home with a good night's sleep.
