A couple of our lady friends had decided to go for a day hike in Glenorchy Queenstown. At the last minute, one of the ladies couldn’t go, so Karen herself decided she would go on her own.

We did advise her this wasn’t a good idea, but she was going to go anyway as she had taken time off work. My wife said, “okay then, if you’re going to go, please take my husband’s locator beacon with you.”

She wasn’t going to, but we made her take it anyway.

On that Tuesday morning, my wife called me, her voice tense with concern. She’d just received a phone call informing her that my locator beacon had been activated. The rescue team on the other end of the line explained that Karen had taken a serious fall down a steep bank. She had broken her ankle and sustained a leg injury, and they were mobilizing to reach her as quickly as possible.

The rescue helicopter was there within about half an hour to save her. Karen had already started to get cold, wearing all her clothes that she had with her. I don’t know what would’ve happened if she did not have the ACR ResQLink 400 beacon with her as she lives alone, and it would’ve been very late before anybody realized she hadn’t made it home.