Minnesotan, girlfriend survive 9 days in New Zealand bush

Home
Local

Minnesotan, girlfriend survive 9 days in New Zealand bush

Article by: NICK PERRY , Associated Press
Updated: June 11, 2012 - 9:40 PM

Snow, swollen river strand Inver Grove Heights student.

hide

Alec Brown and his girlfriend Erica Klintworth pose near mountains at an unknown location. The two 21-year-old American students walked out of the New Zealand wilderness Sunday after a snowstorm trapped them for nine days.

Photo: Alec Brown, Associated Press

Camera Star Tribune photo galleries

Camera view larger

3
comments
resize text
print
buy reprints

Tweet
share

email
Email share

your name

your email

recipients email

+ add a comment add a comment

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - Two U.S. students, one from Inver Grove Heights, who were trapped in the New Zealand wilderness by a snowstorm trekked to safety after surviving their nine-day ordeal by rationing their meager supplies of trail mix and warming themselves in hot springs.

Alec Brown and Erica Klintworth, both 21, returned to the city of Christchurch on Monday after meeting up with members of a search team -- famished but otherwise in good shape, police said.

Brown's mother, Lisa, of Inver Grove Heights said she panicked when she first found out her son was missing.

"It's too much for a mom," she said. "Especially when they're that far away. I just felt so helpless."

She had faith that Alec, an environmental science major, knew the outdoors well enough to survive, she said, adding that Erica, who is studying graphic design, is a strong woman.

The two students, on a foreign study program in New Zealand with University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, had planned to hike and camp for a few days at some hot springs on the country's South Island. But heavy rains and a snowstorm -- it's winter in the Southern Hemisphere -- prevented the couple from being able to cross a river and return.

"Unfortunately, it rained and rained, day after day, and snowed," Alec Brown wrote in an e-mail on Monday.

He said the nights were difficult because rain and sleet pounded on the tarpaulin covering their sleeping hammock and the river roared -- reminding them all the time of their predicament.

When they realized they were going to be stuck, they started rationing: "a biscuit and jelly one day," Brown wrote, "and even less another."

The couple's ordeal began June 1 when friend Katie Jenkins, another UW student, dropped them off at a national park on the South Island's West Coast so they could hike in and camp for a few days.

"They were just going to the hot springs, to chill out and study for finals," Jenkins said, adding that she continued on with her own travels and didn't realize the couple were missing until eight days had passed, which is when she raised the alarm.

The two didn't take much food -- some carrots, rice, peanut butter and trail mix, according to police Sgt. Sean Judd, who coordinated rescue attempts. He said that after three days, a steady rain started.

"Then on Wednesday, the snowstorm hit and it got progressively worse," Judd said.

Brown said that soaking in the hot pools "helped keep us warm and [slowed] energy loss."

It wasn't until Sunday, Brown said, that the river finally seemed safe enough to cross again. He and Klintworth prepared for their hike out by cooking up a "good meal" of rice, marshmallows, peanut butter and chocolate, he said.

"We then left and crossed the icy waters only up to our waist," he said. "We were climbing the mountains under the dense tree cover when we first heard the helicopter we assumed was looking for us. The copter never saw us and we walked out just fine and met up with the search and rescue by the road."

It was when they attended a debriefing, he added, that "we found out what a big deal all this was."

Klintworth's father, Dane Klintworth, of Neenah, Wis., said the two students are adept at solving problems and made the right decision to wait to cross the raging river and to ration their food, points with which Judd agreed. But Judd added they could have entered the wilderness better prepared.

Brown said he relied on his past experience hiking and camping and felt confident in the couple's ability to survive.

"I believe when you go into the bush you take your life into your own hands and need to be prepared to handle whatever conditions occur," he said. "We could have been more prepared, but in the end we were prepared enough to walk ourselves out."

The incident came one month after three Boston University students studying abroad were killed in New Zealand when their minivan rolled. The students were driving to a hike at the time of the crash. A fourth student who was critically injured in the crash has since regained consciousness.