Trampers, hunters asked to take basic precautions

Hunters and trampers have been urged to follow precautions to avoid wasting search and rescue time and resources.

Rotorua search and rescue controller Detective Sergeant John Wilson said resources were put into a search for four people on horseback in the bush near Whakatane.

The four were safe and did not know of the search, but were found by a searching helicopter on Sunday morning.

One of the group, a teenager, did not have his heart medication, but the group leader did not know he needed to take it, nor did he know one of the group had told his father they would be away for only a day.

The father raised the alarm and the searching helicopter dropped the medication to the boy.

Mr Wilson said no one would be charged, but it showed how important it was for people to take precautions by telling people where they were going and how long they would be out.

He said the busy time tended to be around the stags' roaring season at Easter when hunters went after wild deer. They tended to be single-minded on hunting, sometimes at the cost of their own safety.

"They will go places and do things other people like trampers and fishermen won't do because they are solely focused on hunting.

"The New Zealand outdoors is a great place, but it obviously has its dangers. The way our climate can change rapidly is one of them. The steep terrain is another.

"People need to be cognizant of the fact that they need to clearly state their intentions. If something goes wrong , the emergency services need a starting point.

"At times we have absolutely no idea of where to start . . . 'my husband has gone hunting and didn't come back'."

Mr Wilson said if people did not take emergency locator beacons with them, the least they should do was to make hut logbook entries about where they were heading.

"If you say where you are going to go, don't change your mind and go somewhere else."

Meanwhile, an injured Turangi woman has been airlifted from Kaimanawa Forest Park after her party activated an emergency locator beacon from the Waipakihi hut.

Wellington Rescue Centre spokesman Steve Corbett said the Taupo-based Lion Foundation rescue helicopter was sent on Sunday morning to search for the source of an emergency position-indicating radio beacon.

The beacon was detected by satellite south-east of Taupo. The signal was tracked by the helicopter's equipment to the hut about three hours after takeoff. The 45-year-old woman, her son and two companions from Levin were found safe and well. They had activated the beacon after the woman injured her right leg.

Mr Corbett said the search was made difficult because of low cloud in the area and the position in which the beacon was set off.

"For a clear and uninterrupted signal, the beacons need to be set off in as clear and open an area as can be found, preferably away from huts or ravines."

- NZPA