Tears as hunter, wife reunited

Andreas Thirling will be forgiven if he sleeps through his 27th wedding anniversary today.
His wife Christine is just happy to have him back.
After four days lost in rugged bush the 50-year-old Northland man walked out on to State Highway 5, about 15km south of Turangi, just before 7pm on Monday.
"It's just wonderful," a relieved Mrs Thirling said. "When the phone rang I thought they were ringing to give me an update. We are so grateful to everyone who searched for him."
Mr Thirling had been hunting in the Waipakihi Valley with two friends but failed to return from a solo hunt on Thursday.
Latching on to a stag, Mr Thirling said he became lost and the batteries on his GPS (global positioning system) died.
He walked through thick bush for four days, cutting his hands, arms and legs on bush lawyer weeds, falling and breaking his watch and losing his compass in the process.
Fear was the last thing on his mind.
"I kept thinking about my wife. I knew people would be looking for me," he said.
His only food was a single muesli bar which he cut into thumbnail-sized pieces. He collected stream water in a 500ml bottle and ate fern leaves.
"I did think about eating bugs at one stage. One fern was like pepper on my throat," he said.
"I only slept about four hours in five days. It was freezing cold."
Volunteers from all over the Central North Island joined the search, using helicopters, dogs and kayaks; numbers swelled on Sunday to more than 40.
Mr Thirling's signals went unnoticed: he let off a few gunshots on Friday morning, but that was before he had been reported missing. Torrential rain fell that day and a helicopter flying overhead raised his hopes.
"I thought they could see me, but they couldn't.
"So I lit a fire and burnt my toothbrush. Plastic burns good," he said.
On Monday morning he found a cone and note searchers had left on a track.
Making his way through Tree Trunk Gorge Rd Mr Thirling heard traffic from the Desert Rd and knew help was within reach. The first vehicle he saw, a truck, drove straight past him.
"I realised I had a gun in my hand so put it on my shoulder. I must have looked a sight."
He waved the next car down and the driver, a man named Josh, gave him a banana and drove him to the Turangi police station.
The hunter attributes his survival to a black plastic bag, a knife and the muesli bar.
The good-news phone call that Mr Thirling had walked out of the bush came at around 7pm on Monday night, and Mrs Thirling arrived in Taupo early yesterday to reunion hugs and wet cheeks.
"The tears came automatically - he looked so scratched," she said.
"When you go through the bush for days you don't look very nice, and he was dehydrated. But otherwise he's in good spirits. He just needs a good rest," she said.
Hunting companion Wayne Smith said he was impressed with the search efforts and remained confident his mate would make it.

"I'm just surprised he didn't eat worms. He ate a possum once. If it's edible he'll eat it."
While his mate carried a GPS, people shouldn't rely on electronic devices unless it was a personal locater beacon, Mr Smith said.
"Anything can go wrong, but with a beacon you will be found within two to four hours."
Search and Rescue police Senior Constable Barry Shepherd said he was surprised the hunter had survived.
"You are always optimistic in the back of your mind but we had no clues in four days. We thought we were searching for a body or someone who was seriously injured or unresponsive,' he said.