Tuesday 23 September 2008

Helicopter-tastic, Episode Two

Saturday 21 June 2008


Tongariro Crossing, Mangatepopo Road End, Tongariro National Park.

Team: Rene, Paul, Myself

As Mark was away in Europe, I was often away tramping for weekends to keep myself occupied. WT&MC does a Winter Solstice trip every year to the club lodge, where you daywalk on Saturday, party Saturday night and then mooch around a bit on Sunday before heading home. Plans are always fluid depending on who is around, what the people who are capable to lead feel like doing and what the weather is up to. This year we had fantastic clear, crisp skies. The schedule indicated Tama Lakes as the daywalk, with a mountain bike trip to a local loop.

Paul, Rene and I all agreed we didn’t really feel like doing the Tama Lakes walk again. I had done it in November 2007 and found it a bit tedious. Instead, with clear weather in winter we were keen to head over to the Tongariro Crossing to do a there-and-back to South Crater, picking up the mountain bikers on our way home in the afternoon.

The sun was bright and there was not a cloud in the sky as we parked the van at the Mangatepopo Road End. It was absolutely freezing, especially in the shade. As we meandered up the valley towards Soda Springs, every pool of water we found was frozen up to two cm thick, and further up the valley even the streams were frozen over in places. Large segments of the track also obviously never saw sunshine at that time of year!

Frozen in time A river flows through it

We passed very few people, except one really oddly dressed tourist in jeans and chucks, carrying a stereo in her shoulder bag… She must have had a really early start, because she was at Soda Springs the same time we were, about 10am, heading down the valley towards Mangatepopo Hut.


Morning Tea in the sun

Up the new devils staircase in the sun and cold, we got to the top and sat down to take a morning tea break, enjoying the views across to Mt Taranaki and the sunshine. A decision was made that I would wander into South Crater and try some photography, while the guys were going to try and circumnavigate the bowl of South Crater and pick me up on their way back.

All of a sudden there was a scream from slightly further along the track. We all looked at each other and looked across to the large asian woman who we had all noted walking towards us. We waited 10 seconds or so to see if she was going to get herself up, and when she continued screaming instead we all packed up our gear and headed over to find her moaning in pain, lying in a puddle with her ankle at a very odd angle.

In these conditions, with the cold and a strong breeze, the first concern we had was moving her out of that puddle because none of us had suitable dry clothing to change her into. So we grabbed her under the arms and around the knees and shunted her ever so slightly backwards. She spoke almost no English, so our examination was exceedingly cursory – “where does it hurt” was understood well enough as she pointed at her ankle (which was obviously damaged). “Are you warm enough” generated a response of her grabbing more clothes out of her bag (she was remarkably well prepared compared to many other tourists we had heard stories about).

There were no two ways about it. There was no way we could get her out ourselves. We were at the top of the Devils Staircase with a larger (about 95kg+) woman who spoke very little English and with only a very basic first aid kit. We couldn’t support her ankle enough for her to use it, and we didn’t have enough strength to carry her out, nor could we explain sufficiently assisting her out. So out came the cellphone and a desperate attempt at finding enough signal to make an emergency call.

Our lunch spot had coverage sufficient only to send texts and make emergency calls. Perfect. We pulled out the map and the GPS and got readings off both of them for where we were. Rene thought it a bit odd that I asked for the police when I rang 111, but then had a dawning realisation when I then asked for the northern region search & rescue coordinator. Wonderfully, the woman we got on the phone was an avid tramper and had been in our exact location less than three weeks earlier.

Once we had given them an update on what was happening, there was nothing to do but sit and wait. Unfortunately, none of us had brought a cooker or similar with us, so a hot brew was out of the question. It also wouldn’t have been fair on our injured party as we had been instructed that they were only to be given water. No painkillers, no food in case she needed urgent surgery or similar once in hospital.

After what seemed like an eternity (but was only really a couple of hours) and a couple of false alarms where the aircraft flying towards us was obviously on a tour, the chopper we wanted hovered into view right down at the road end, following the track up to find us, as we had expected they would. The closest landing spot was our morning tea seating area, slightly above us.


Rescue! All hands

During this time we had encountered several other tramping parties, some of whom had decided we obviously had things under control, some who completely ignored the situation, but we were so thankful for the small party of kiwis who gave up their attempt to get over the crossing in order to take a note back to the road end for our patients friend explaining the situation, and making a phone call to confirm our situation to SaR once they were back in cellphone range.

Finally someone else was taking over the situation, and we were all exceedingly glad. By this stage Rene, Paul and I were all wearing every single item of clothing we had brought along for the day and we were still feeling the cold. The cloud was also closing in on us, which had caused us substantial concern about visibility for getting the helicopter in if it had come in any further before it arrived.

After loading our patient into a stretcher and taking a quick photo of the “team”, we carried her over and up to the chopper and they were off to try and find her tramping companion – the one we had seen earlier in the day carrying a stereo and wearing jeans. As for us, we were off back down the track towards our van and its warmth. By the time we had made it down into the valley, the ledge we had been standing on when the helicopter arrived was no longer visible. By the time we were 20 minutes down the valley, even the head of the valley had disappeared into the cloud.



Load her up And away

Once back in the van, it was time to wait for the mountain biking boys and then we were back to the lodge in near-darkness to have hot showers, retell our story and rest up before dinner and the all-evening party that is solstice weekend.

Sunday 10 August 2008

Helicopter-tastic, Episode One

8-10 February 2008

Waitewaewae Track, Otaki Forks Road End, Tararua Forest Park

Party: Ray (leader), Sue, Sam, Kerryn, Mark, Antony, Sarah, Carol, Daniel, Me

Friday began much like any other normal weekend tramp. Well, maybe not, given it was sevens weekend and almost everyone else headed towards the railway station was in costume...
On arrival, I greeted Ray and was introduced to the group at large. I started chatting to Mark, on account of his awesome t-shirt (Reads: "Dirty, Filthy, Stinky, Tramp" in big letters down the back), and discovered that he was new to the club and fairly new to Wellington as well. I thought he was kinda cute.

Driving on to the road end, dinner was in Waikanae, which has really only average dinner venues. But it was hot and greasy, so thats all that really matters. Before too long we were at the Otaki Forks road-end setting up camp outside Parawai Lodge.
Parawai Lodge
Mark, Kerryn and I shared one end of a club fly and my ground sheet. Problem was that where I wound up within the tent had a lump in the middle of it, so neither end of the bed was a comfortable way around to sleep - I just cant sleep with my head below my hips. Eventually I gave up and went up onto the hut deck to sleep - far more comfortable, and shaded from the moon!

Saturday morning dawned HOT. And sunny. Real February weather!
We wandered off down the track at a pace that both Kerryn and I struggled with in the heat. At the big swingbridge I was already having dreams of stopping on the way back for a swim. The river was so beautiful, it was an amazing spot.

Waiting for the others to cross

Once all across the bridge one at a time, we continued on, around the massive slip that keeps moving, and eventually onto the old tramway.
Old tracks Looking down the mouth of the slip

At the old pulley we stopped to have lunch and dry the tent fly, which had got a bit of condensation on it and not enough sunshine. Once we had packed up we were off again towards Waitewaiwai Hut, our destination for the night. We dropped into the river and followed the track in and out of it and up and down around it for a while.
The old steam engine Lunch break

All of a sudden there was a screaming yell from behind me. Sarah had had the track collapse underneath her feet and had slipped partway down the bank, badly twisting her ankle. First aid was administered in the form of cold cloths, elevation and painkillers, and once Sarah was feeling better we made an attempt to start walking her out. After about 15 minutes of difficult scramble due to her being unable to bear any weight on her ankle and the ground (and lack of strong people) making a carry impractical, we stopped on another bank where the river narrowed and discussed options.
The route around the slip was in no way going to be at all negotiable with Sarah unable to walk. It wasnt a "track" so much as "goat-track" - narrow, steep and slippery. There was no way we could get even one support person alongside Sarah through there. The river had good wide flats, but could also possibly require a series of swims to get back to Otaki Forks, and it was a river that got much larger as you got closer to the forks, and with two young boys on the tramp it wasnt really a suitable option.

In the end, Ray set off his PLB, which was an old 121.5 with 3-years "expired" batteries, left his food with us for the evening and took Sam for a rapid walk back to the road end to call for assistance from the ranger station. The rest of us got out cookers and billies and made a brew while we waited to see what would happen. We set up two tent flies alongside the track (in an area so narrow that the party that came through the next day looked around them and wondered WHERE the tents had been!), threw on warm clothes and generally made ourselves comfortable, telling stories and sharing jokes.
Campsite

Suddenly, I could hear a helicopter. Surely not. The beacon had only been on for two hours, and there was no way Ray and Sam could be back at the road end yet! But yes, it was a chopper and it was looking for us - turns out an aircraft had picked up our signal within about 20 minutes of the beacon being set off!
Dropping from the sky
Next thing we knew, a man had been dropped from the sky and was turning to talk to us about what was going on.
Up and Away
Within 45 minutes of that, Sarah had been airlifted out and we were all of a sudden on our own again, waiting out the night alongside the track. The idea of walking back to the road end, or at least back to the old steam-engine pulley, was very briefly voiced, but there would have been a risk that we would have wound up walking in the dark. Funnily enough, walking on to the hut held even less appeal by this stage!

Bed was early since there was nothing else to do, and was not a bad nights sleep, all told. Yes, my bed was on a slope, and yes, I spent most of my night with one leg hooked around a punga stump to stop me sliding down the hill, but I actually woke feeling refreshed, which was lovely.

In the morning, we were up fairly early. After leaving a note for the other party, we divvied up Sarahs pack and wandered off, stopping for a good while at the point where the track leaves the river, in case Ray and Sam had walked back in to meet us. After a while we decided they obviously hadn't and continued on. The day was muggy and threatening to rain, which it finally did once we were past the big swing bridge.

The swim at the road-end carpark was divinely cold and welcoming! Mark, Ray and I were in the van, which was waiting for Stuart and his party to come out from a harder tramp. Joyously, they had junkfood to share on the way home!
Waitewaiwai map