On Monday evening the Greenlea Rescue Helicopter spent several hours searching for a woman lost on the west of Mt Ruapehu.
A lost hiker found off-track at Mt Ruapehu has had her rescue compared to that of winning Lotto's Big Wednesday.
It was the keen eyes of a ground-based searcher that spotted footprints in the sand which led to the discovery of a woman who had been missing for several hours at the national park.
On Monday evening the Greenlea Rescue Helicopter was contacted by National Park Police regarding a woman who had not returned from a day hike to Lake Surprise on the west of Mt Ruapehu.
At some point in the afternoon a text message was received from her saying she had lost her way, was following a river, and that her phone battery was going flat.
With no further information or contact, the Greenlea Rescue Helicopter team scrambled to respond with just two hours of daylight remaining.
Pilot Nat Every said the initial search covered a roughly 20km square area.
"After about two hours of intensive searching and having covered off the primary search area as best we could, we had one last area of interest before departing the scene for the night.
"Right on sunset, and having just turned tail on the primary search area literally 10 seconds earlier, one of the four ground [searchers] rushed into the area at short notice and announced that a few footprints had been spotted in the sand where the Horopito to Mangaturuturu Track crossed the Makotuku Stream, and that they appeared to head downstream."
About five minutes later the air crew spotted the missing woman through the trees.
"She was completely invisible with the exception of her white face and blonde hair staring up out of the darkness," Every said.
With no ability to assess the terrain from the helicopter and with failing light, the crew hoisted a LandSAR volunteer to assist the woman and directed the ground-based searcher to the location.
"As a tidy finish to the operation the pair in the river were able to easily scramble out of the river and up to the track," Every said.
"My understanding is that she had actually left the main track about 300m into her journey, and then continued on an epic all-day hike of 10km plus down the Makotuku Stream to where she was found."
Every said the woman owed her life to the LandSAR rescue team and compared her rescue to winning lotto.
"The fact that the ground-based volunteer spotted her two footprints was outstanding, and the fact she was spotted from the helicopter on its first pass, through overhanging trees in the shadows of a river valley in near darkness was also extremely fortunate for her," he said.
"To put this in layman's terms, I would suggest that there would have been more chance of winning Lotto's Big Wednesday last night, than of there being a positive result in this search given the area and weather involved, and the timeframe."
Every said the good outcome came down to the local knowledge and experience of the area of all those involved in the search, as well as good luck.
"[It was ] a very rewarding afternoon, and a fantastic result for all involved."