Hiker Found Alive After 18 Days in New Zealand Wilderness

Graham Garnett walked into a wilderness hut on December 30 and didn't walk out for 18 days, but his story has a happy ending that even rescuers are calling miraculous.

The 66-year-old had set out for a hike in the Baton/Ellis River area of Kahurangi National Park on New Zealand's South Island. When he failed to return as expected, a massive search operation launched involving Land Search and Rescue New Zealand, specialist teams from the New Zealand Defense Force, and dozens of volunteers.

For two weeks, teams scoured the park's 2,005 square miles of mountains, rivers, and gorges. Despite their best efforts, searchers found no trace of Garnett in the rugged terrain.

On January 15, rescue coordinators made the difficult call to suspend the search. They would wait for new information before resuming operations.

But three days later, contractors working in a remote area of the park discovered Garnett alive, sheltering in a backcountry hut. He had survived more than two weeks in the wilderness on his own.

Sunny's Take

Sometimes the best news comes when you've stopped expecting it. For Garnett's family, those 18 days must have felt endless, and the decision to call off the search devastating.

His survival speaks to both human resilience and a bit of luck. The contractors who found him happened to be working in an area remote enough that regular search patterns had missed it.

Rescuers transported Garnett to Nelson Hospital, where he reunited with his family. Police described him as having been through quite an ordeal but expressed delight at the outcome.

"This is an amazing result," Nelson, Marlborough, West Coast Police said in their statement. "We are so pleased for Graham and his loved ones."

The story reminds us that hope has a place even when the odds look grim, and that sometimes persistence comes in unexpected forms.