{"id":171068,"date":"2026-09-21T14:49:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/?post_type=survivor-stories&p=171068"},"modified":"2026-09-21T14:51:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:51:00","slug":"acr-personal-locator-beacon-brings-help-after-tararua-range-fall","status":"publish","type":"survivor-stories","link":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/survivor-stories\/acr-personal-locator-beacon-brings-help-after-tararua-range-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"ACR Personal Locator Beacon Brings Help After Tararua Range Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was around 1,600 km into a 7,000 km solo walk around New Zealand. The journey took me from Cape Reinga toward Bluff and beyond. I was fundraising for Land Search and Rescue New Zealand while walking through the country.<\/p>\n

Deep in the Tararua Range, I was heading toward Wellington on a steep track. A rock moved unexpectedly beneath me. I fell, and tree roots trapped my left leg.<\/p>\n

I knew I had suffered a serious injury. Later, at the hospital, doctors confirmed that I had broken my left leg in three places.<\/p>\n

As soon as I could, I took out my ACR personal locator beacon<\/a> and activated it. I believed my leg was broken, and I knew I needed help. The emergency beacon activation gave me a way to call for assistance from deep in the range. I could not continue the walk, so I waited for rescuers to find me.<\/p>\n

Some time later, I heard a helicopter searching for me. That sound brought enormous relief after the fall and the uncertainty that followed. A rescuer came down from the helicopter by winch. They secured me, and the crew winched us both back into the aircraft.<\/p>\n

The helicopter took me to Palmerston North Hospital. There, surgeons operated to repair my leg. This PLB rescue brought professional help to my location when I could not get myself off the track. It gave me a way to call for assistance in a remote place after a serious injury.<\/p>\n

I am now recovering and preparing to restart my walk around New Zealand. The journey is not over, and I look forward to returning to the trail and continuing the fundraising effort that means so much to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was around 1,600 km into a 7,000 km solo walk around New Zealand. The journey took me from Cape Reinga toward Bluff and beyond. I was fundraising for Land Search and Rescue New Zealand while walking through the country. Deep in the Tararua Range, I was heading toward Wellington on a steep track. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":612639,"featured_media":166279,"template":"","survivor-category":[17],"terrain":[],"survivor-event":[2717],"survivor-cause":[123],"survivor-rescue":[2832],"class_list":["post-171068","survivor-stories","type-survivor-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","survivor-category-hiking","survivor-event-challenging-terrain","survivor-cause-medical-emergency","survivor-rescue-helicopter-rescue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories\/171068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/survivor-stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/612639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"survivor-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-category?post=171068"},{"taxonomy":"terrain","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/terrain?post=171068"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-event","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-event?post=171068"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-cause","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-cause?post=171068"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-rescue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-rescue?post=171068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}