By TONY WALL
With pumped chests and fisted salutes, Epi Ronaki and Howard Barton left three days ago on a spiritual journey to the top of a sacred mountain on the Coromandel Peninsula.
Only one has made it back.
The Te Puke pair set out from Stony Bay, near the Coromandel's northern tip,
at lunchtime on Monday to climb Mt Moehau to pay their respects to the great Maori chief Tama Te Kapua, whose bones are said to be buried at the summit.
It was an ill-advised trek.
The inexperienced trampers ignored the advice of Department of Conservation property manager Alan Wallace that without food, water or packs they were poorly equipped and had not left enough daylight for the six-hour return walk.
But the men, dressed in urban streetwear rather than bush clothes, were staunch. They punched the air as they began the 892m climb to the highest point on the Coromandel.
It was the last anyone has seen of the dreadlocked Mr Barton, aged 43.
Mr Ronaki, 27, spent two nights in the open in freezing conditions before reluctantly deciding to leave his friend and try to get help.
He finally managed to "bush-whack" his way to the sub-alpine summit, where he was spotted by the police Eagle helicopter yesterday morning.
He was airlifted out, suffering from severe hypothermia.
Thames-Coromandel search and rescue volunteers gave him warm clothing and pumped him full of energy food and liquid.
The helicopter took him back up the mountain late yesterday afternoon, but he could not find the spot where he left his friend.
Mr Wallace said the weather on the mountain could be lethal. It was raining and bitterly cold on Tuesday and he doubted that Mr Barton, last seen huddling under some ferns wearing shorts, T-shirt and a pair of cowboy boots, could survive another night.
It appears the men took off their jackets and trousers half way up the mountain because it was hot. They left the clothing by the side of the track, planning to pick it up on the way down, but got lost and disoriented.
Members of the 32-strong team of police and volunteer searchers found the clothing on Tuesday morning.
Mr Ronaki is understood to have told his rescuers that he and Mr Barton got lost when they tried to follow the direction of the wind. ``The spirit of the wind was telling us where to go,'' he said.
Legend has it that after burying Tama Te Kapua - commander of the canoe Arawa which brought the first Maori to New Zealand - one of his grandsons remarked about the exposed summit: ``He will have a windy sleep there.''
Hence the mountain was named Moehau - the windy resting place of Tama Te Kapua.
Police will resume searching for Mr Barton this morning.
By TONY WALL
With pumped chests and fisted salutes, Epi Ronaki and Howard Barton left three days ago on a spiritual journey to the top of a sacred mountain on the Coromandel Peninsula.
Only one has made it back.
The Te Puke pair set out from Stony Bay, near the Coromandel's northern tip,
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