I had been walking on Te Araroa Trail in The Longwoods and could not figure how I to get past some very large metal gates; I was using my phone to help navigate me and it went flat. So I turned around and tried to find a way out. I walked 14 km on a gravel road but felt the track at the end was over grown so I back tracked, but ran out of daylight. I was reluctant to set off my ResQLink+ beacon as I was not injured.

In the meantime my husband and a friend who just happens to be a member of local search and rescue Southland set up a search and went looking for me. When I became very cold I became frightened so set off my husband’s ResQLink+ beacon which he insisted I carry. I was picked up in about 20 minutes as the team were in the area searching the maze of forrestry roads.