Hunters rendezvous later than scheduled

An elderly hunter and his nephew spent a night in the West Coast wilderness, pondering the fate of one another.

A search and rescue operation was about to get under way yesterday morning when police found the 76-year-old hunter sitting in a carpark. The man's nephew had raised the alarm after the pair had failed to meet at the junction of the Karangarua River and the Copland Track in South Westland.

"I was talking to some trampers and I was saying, `keep an eye out for this old fella', then I had a look around the corner and there he was, sitting on a rock," Senior Constable Robin Manera, of the Haast police, said yesterday.

The two hunters went in to the bush on Sunday, and took alternative routes up the Karangarua River. They planned to meet at the junction of the river and the track. However, when the nephew reached the meeting point, his uncle was not there.

"The nephew was up and down the track all night looking for him," Manera said. "Meantime, the uncle had reached the rendezvous point and he'd just curled up in his sleeping bag and he was as warm as toast." The nephew also camped out nearby, pondering the fate of his uncle, and left the area in the morning to raise the alarm.

"When junior hadn't turned up at 9 o'clock this morning, he (the uncle) walked back out and was just sitting at the carpark when I came along," Manera said.

The situation highlighted the importance of two-way radios to stay in touch, Manera said.

"As long as you've got fresh batteries, they are cheap insurance."