Wānaka LandSAR was called out to Mt Burke on Monday night (July 29) after two hunters set off a locator beacon. 

“Two experienced hunters went into an area they were familiar with, looked at the weather forecast but didn’t give it the value [they] should have,” Wānaka Police Senior Sergeant Fiona (Fi) Roberts said.

“They were prepared for the cold, prepared for the weather, what they weren’t prepared for was visibility and they got caught out badly. They ended up on top of Mt Burke in white-out conditions.”

Fi said the hunters took a wrong turn and ended up bluffed. 

“They went as far as they could down, they couldn’t get back up, or sideways and ended up getting stropped out on a line by a helicopter.”

“A big thank you to the expertise of the ACR [Alpine Cliff Rescue] and SubAlpine groups, some of whom spent a cold and wet night out,” Fi said.

The ground SAR team was deployed on Monday night but weather hampered efforts to get to the party. 

Three “top class” SAR team members spent the night out nearby the stranded hunters, and waited until the weather lifted the next day, Fi said.

She said the hunters received good feedback from SAR at a briefing later on Tuesday, with some good lessons learnt from a terrifying experience.

She said the hunters were “grateful and appreciative, and humbled to see the number of people going out to rescue them”.

“While no one intends to get caught out, police remind even the most experienced hunters to put a high value on the weather forecast,” she said.

PHOTO: Wānaka App