Snowboarder in lucky escape

Coronet Peak skifield. Photo / Miles Holden

An English snowboarder is lucky to be alive after he strayed off the Coronet Peak ski slopes and was missing for more than six hours. Millbrook restaurant manager Paul Hignett was found, soaking wet in a creek, by a police search and rescue team using a helicopter equipped with night vision.

"They were amazing. I'm thankful because they pretty much saved my life," he told the Otago Daily Times. Constable Julian Cahill said that had Mr Hignett spent the night in the below-zero temperatures, his chances of surviving were slim.

Mr Hignett's nightmare day has not put him off the mountain. "I will probably go [up] tomorrow ... There's going to be good sun, good snow, so why not?"