Nelson resident Jacquie Walters has urged outdoor goers to follow expert advice after an overnight ordeal at St Arnaud last weekend.
She had travelled with her partner, Clemens, and daughter, Isabella, for a two-night stay on Friday, and decided to take a late afternoon run around the Lake Rotoiti circuit.
At about 4:20pm she realised she had gone off course and due to fading light and the terrain she was running in, she knew it would be unsafe to try and return.
“I knew that the worst thing I could do having got into that position is to make it worse by getting injured,” she says.
“I pulled off a birch branch that I saw and put it on the trail and sat on that and leaned against a mushy bank.
“I knew that I had a good 12 to 13 hours at least before I had enough light to see the track again because you couldn’t see anything to come back down.”
Jacquie, who had visited St Arnaud before, but was unfamiliar with the area, says she tried not to fall asleep and rubbed her legs, hugged her body and used her running bandana to keep warm.
“I wasn’t sure when I would have enough light to safely see because all I had was my running gear and running shoes and I knew that I had to be careful going downhill,” she says.
Jacquie says she was determined to last the night when she suspected her failure to return had been reported after hearing helicopters and dogs, which she later learned were possibly made by army personnel that had been deployed to search for her.
Episode 11 - living locally and working globally — The Nelson Pod
“It was very encouraging because as you can imagine it’s a mental journey contemplating your fate for that many hours in the dark,” she says. “I knew that Clemens would raise the alarm and that helped me a lot psychologically… my job was to get through the night and get myself as close as possible to being found.”
Jacquie says at about 6:45am the following morning, having survived the night, she managed to return to her St Arnaud accommodation.
She was reunited with her partner, who raised the alarm of her disappearance, daughter and friends and family who had travelled from as far away as Christchurch to support the search for her.
“They couldn’t believe it really, I think Clemens couldn’t believe his eyes, everyone had been preparing for the worst news and I think the fact that I had just turned up was a bit stunning for them,” she says.
“I have to say thank you to everyone for their kindness, I’m very grateful.”
Jacquie says the public should seek expert advice before heading outdoors.
“Their messages are the ones that I would listen to, and they have good information of what we should all do to prepare before we go into that environment,” she says.
“If you are stuck, trying to remain calm and stay in one place so that you can be found so that you don’t injure yourself, and give yourself the best chance to get back to the people who are worried and love you.”
