Carkeek hut was the last hut in the Tararua I needed to bag in order to be the first one in our group of mountain runners finishing them all. The last mostly because is in the deepest part of the infamous Tararua range. My usual mate for these kind of missions was Mark, a really expert navigator and mountain man who was unfortunately already been at Carkeek but needed to bag Nichols, that’s exactly on the range in front so we decided to go to the forks at the bottom of the two ridges and then each one would have gone to “his” hut and then we would have met again at the fork and back out to the deserved beers. Set off the night before even if the weather was bad and supposed to get worse that night but we had to get there. First mistake. Forgot the second map and the only compass in the car. Second mistake. Got to Dorset Hut to spend the night in awful conditions under pouring rain and gale winds. My phone got completely soaked so no more maps on the phone nor ways to communicate. Third mistake. Next morning we separated for our huts not planning what to do in case we weren’t meeting after the huts. Fourth mistake. I got to my hut and then, happy as a bird, started running downhill, losing the track and not bothering about trying to find it again. Fifth mistake. Got down to the river and started following, presuming it would have taken me to the forks but after one hour and a half of swims into cold water, falls from boulders, bush bashing in the bush beside the riverbanks I started thinking I was wrong. So turned back and went upstream. Sixth and worst mistake, why? WHY? Dunno, maybe started the panic and tiredness… After another two hours of the same pleasant going the river was a creek and I realized I was totally wrong and lost. My mate would have been waiting for me since hours, evening was coming soon and I was knackered. So I set off Mark’s beacon I had still in my backpack from my last solo trip. After one hour and a half I heard the chopper and saw a lovely paramedic winching down to save me. We tried to find my mate but he was under the bush looking for me so we set off towards the hospital leaving him a message into my car, together with the car keys. My body temperature was 34°after a couple of hours under the blanket and I had a few concussions but nothing major. Not nice having to call back home to tell the family I had been rescued but that’s life. Luckily. A lot of lessons learnt.