Happy endings are best. Two students got more adventure than they planned on, but walked out under their own steam after nine days.

Some mistakes, but some good decisions too. And IMO the right attitude.

They waited out the rain and a snowstorm, waited until the river was safe to cross, and walked out to meet SAR on the main road.

Brown said he relied on his past experience hiking and camping and felt confident in the couple's ability to survive.

"I believe when you go into the bush you take your life into your own hands and need to be prepared to handle whatever conditions occur," he said. "We could have been more prepared, but in the end we were prepared enough to walk ourselves out."

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/travel/st...2592/story.html

There's not a ton of into there but I like their attitude. "We could have been more prepared, but in the end we were prepared enough to walk ourselves out."

They didn't have enough food and they didn't have a phone or PLB/SPOT, but otherwise, it sounds like they made smart decisions. Glad they made it out and in pretty good shape too.

It seems to me that in the vast majority of survival situations, most people do OK if they don't panic and do some thinking about their situation first, regardless of their level of expertise, gear, and supplies.

The ones that seem to get into trouble the most seem to be those that ought to know better, or try to self rescue when it would be better to just wait things out like these kids did. Things usually do get better.

Interesting that there is no mention of a fire: the hot springs kept them warm instead. I wonder if they could/did have a fire? They mention "cooking" on the day they walked out. Should we assume they did have access to a fire? Or was that just a way of saying they made something up?

Great ending, they might as well get married now. Otherwise, it'll be a case of "Remember New Zealand?" for the rest of their lives in other relationships.



I'm OK with assuming they had fire. They cooked rice. I suppose the rice could have been pre-cooked, but that seems unlikely.

It's hard to find additional details. Apparently it's not newsworthy unless someone (almost) dies. Oh well.

It seems they were backpacking on the south island, so I assume they had a gas stove.

Also, they apparently missed the worst of the snowstorm. Still, temperatures dipped down to 17F. The SAR spokesman suggests there could have been a different outcome without the hot pools, which they used to fullest advantage. I'm not sure that a Wisconsin boy would fold up all that quickly in the face of a little brisk weather; but NZ has a lot of very young mountains, and I'm not sure there's much suitable vegetation for shelter and fire.

given that they made some basic mistakes with lack of preparation .. I think their later decisions were pretty sensible. good for them!

Pete2