Searchers find Japanese tramper lost in mountains for two days

A Japanese tourist defied the elements and recent history when he was found alive yesterday after two nights lost in rugged South Island mountain country.

Hiroshi Kameda, 53, emerged tired and hungry after going missing in the Arthurs Pass National Park, but lucky to have avoided the fate of two other tourists who died while tramping in the park this month.

Mr Kameda struggled to convey his feelings to the Herald because of his poor grasp of English, but said he had set out on Friday to climb Mount Aicken and became lost when he took a different route on the way down.

He said he slept next to a waterfall and found a hole in which he could keep warm at nights.

"Sometimes in the early morning, maybe five or six o'clock, it is very cold," he said.

Mr Kameda had run out of food - he only had chocolate and peanuts with him when he set out - and was wearing jeans, a T-shirt and a jacket when he was found in bush near a road about 4km south of Arthurs Pass Village. "I wouldn't say [he was] well-equipped," said police search controller Senior Constable Phil Simmonds.

"He was probably lucky that the weather has been very kind to him and probably lucky he's found a way down which wasn't as bluffy as a lot of the areas up there. He spent a couple of days walking around, being disoriented.

"It's just the country up there, you're above the bush line, it's all scree, it's very steep. Unless you are very aware of where you are going, it's very easy to get disoriented."

Mr Kameda was thankful to the searchers and able to call his family in Japan yesterday to tell them he was all right. He had been travelling in New Zealand for five weeks, tramping and climbing.

"I think this time is the last time to climb mountains," he said.

Mr Simmonds admitted it was a relief for searchers to find Mr Kameda alive after the tragic record so far this month.

"It's very, very good," he said. "The teams are very positive ... so we were confident we would have a good result."

Although Mr Kameda left no information about the tramp he was going on, Mr Simmonds could not envisage him being asked to help pay for the search, which involved police, volunteers, search dogs and a helicopter.

Last Wednesday, American tramper Christopher Brent Clarke was found dead in the Browning Pass area of the national park after he appeared to have fallen to his death.

Englishwoman Elizabeth Thomson was found dead on March 2 after setting off to climb Mount Aicken. She also appears to have died after a fall.