McLean has spoken of the panic on realising young Charlie was missing.
A large-scale search and rescue operation was launched by 5.15pm and a group spent the night looking for them in cold and rainy conditions, with temperatures falling as low as 5C.
For Mclean, it was a helpless, traumatic experience.
“It wasn’t great ... you sort of felt you were useless at some points and didn’t know what you were supposed to do,” McLean, of Dunedin, told the Herald this morning.
While the expert searches took the lead, McLean did what he could, looking around with torches and driving around the area.
“You just did a bit of everything, trying to be useful,” he said.
At first light, a helicopter was scrambled to help, and the search party now involved about 45 people, including police staff, search dogs, and volunteers from Land Search and Rescue and Amateur Radio Emergency Communications.
And by around 10am, a ground team heard them yelling – about 1.5km from the campground, in a clearing near the lake.
After sheltering through the night under a log, the children set off again in the morning.
The children did have a parent’s cellphone with them, but there was no reception, and then the battery reportedly went flat.
They were flown to Te Anau for a precautionary medical checkup.
Southern Lakes Helicopters chief pilot Sean Mullally told the Otago Daily Times the pair were very cold but otherwise fine.
“They’re very, very lucky to be alive,” he said.
“The weather was horrendous overnight — it was snowing, blowing, thunder, lightning and heavy rain.”
They had done the right thing by sticking together, he said.
Today, young Charlie is said to be doing well.
Despite it being the first day of Term 3, he has been given the day off school, his father said.
“He’s doing good. He’s kind of over talking about it,” McLean said.
He is highly appreciative of the response.
“We just want to say thanks to everyone who came and helped us,” he said.
“It was pretty amazing how many people showed up in the middle of nowhere, at short notice, and worked all the way through the night. It was pretty impressive.”
Southland District Mayor Rob Scott said he was “elated and rapt” when police called him with the news the children had been found safe and well.
Queenstown Sergeant Terry Wood, who was part of the rescue team, commended the children for their bravery and for doing the right things.
- Kurt Bayer is a South Island correspondent based in Christchurch. He is a senior journalist who joined the Herald in 2011.
