A 53-year-old tramper has been found dead in undetermined circumstances after activating his personal locator beacon [PLB] on a Tararua track.
The PLB signal was picked up by the Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand [RCCNZ] at 3pm on Friday, with the beacon giving a location just below Concertina Knob in the Tararua Range behind Carterton.
The beacon gave a signal a considerable distance from the track between Neill Forks Hut and Maungahuka Hut
Sergeant Tony Matheson said the signal came about 300 metres off the side of the track in some “very difficult and very steep country terrain.”
“The helicopter was flying over and the technology is fairly accurate but they couldn’t locate the person. So they used thermal binoculars and picked up a hotspot under the canopy.
“They communicated with Search and Rescue on the ground who eventually came across the man, who was deceased.”
Matheson said although it was initially believed the man had a medical incident, they had not yet ruled out other possibilities.
“All that is yet to be determined.”
The man’s wife was located in a hut further up the track. Both were foreign nationals.
“As much as this is a tragic event it certainly shows the value of that kind of device. If that device hadn’t been activated it would have been a very difficult search in some very demanding weather.”
The search was a multi-agency effort between RCCNZ, NZ Police, Wairarapa Search and Rescue and Amalgamated Helicopters.
“The body was eventually recovered from the forest park,” Matheson said.
“It was fairly challenging in the weather conditions at the time. It was the latter part of the day before it got resolved – just before darkness.”
