David Graham: tramper on his narrow escape from freezing Tararua Ranges

A lucky escape for a near-hypothermic Wellington tramper and his dog after the pair were rescued from freezing overnight conditions in the Tararua Ranges. 

David Graham and Winnie were winched to safety in an Air Force helicopter about 4.30am yesterday, where he was given the best hot chocolate of his life. 

Graham says he was well-prepared, but conditions deteriorated - and by 9pm, his sleeping bag froze. 

"When my dog started shaking, I realised that the temperature was dropping pretty quick, and so at that point I got in touch with emergency services."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A happy ending for a Tatadoo tramper David Graham and
his dog Winnie. They found themselves on the multi day
tramp in the Tatadora Rangers and freezing conditions, had to
be airlifted out by an Air Force chopper in the
middle of the night. No, lest this is Tuesday morning.
David Grahame's with me now, David, good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good evening. How's it going.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, good to have you on the show. How are
you feeling.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, I'm feeling very good. Thank you. Sitting in my
last warm car in Lower hut here, it's it's a
good place.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
To be, Okay. First of all, why were you tramping
when it was so damned cold?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's just the I suppose when you get up into
the mountains and you yeah, you get to see the
Lord's creation from that kind of height, fifteen hundred meters,
you get to see those sunsets. It's a pretty special
place to be. And there's yeah, there's almost nowhere else
I'd rather be. When when things are going to plan,
for sure.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
You were well, you were well prepared, you know, overnight gear,
all that stuff. When did you realize something was wrong?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
So I realized I wasn't going to make it to
the Divvy, and so with the cloud covering, I decided, right,
I'll just pick up here for the night. It was
about I think about thirteen and a half, sorry, thirteen
hundred meters at that point, and then about nine nine

(01:23):
pm the cloud lifters and yeah, dropped a whole bunch
of johmy, which froze up pretty quick. When my dog
started shaking, I realized that it was Yeah, the temperature
was pretty yeah, getting dropping pretty quick. And so at
that point I got in touch with the emergency services.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Probably a good call because nest, you thought you'd wait
till the morning and then yeah, your sleeping bags freezing.
You know, things aren't looking good. So what how did
the rescue go?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Just amazing? And this is you know, I'm not a
huge fan of having you know, being on radio is
getting caught out like this, but I just the reason
I said yes to coming on on ears just to
say thank you to the New Zealand Defense Force and
to the police. And they honestly just do such a
good job and they made it really simple. They were

(02:13):
just absolutely superb. So I couldn't thank them thank me more.
I got in touch with the with the police coordinator
at about two am and said, look, conditions getting pretty bad.
I'm really cold up here. A text that pretty well
just said that, And so they change from getting search

(02:35):
and rescue to come in, they do daylight rescues. So
the police officer in charge got in touch with NDDF
and they organized one of the Air Force choppers to
come in. They arrived I think about four point thirty am.
Once the dog up first, which is good, that's the
that's the priorities, cute little kelpie. And they came back
down and got me, yeah, straight into a hot chop

(02:59):
and in a crunchy bar, which was exactly what I
needed to get my sugars back up and feel uncomfortable.
But you're just honestly just a yeah. All thanks to
those those guys and girls that looked after me. I
really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Well, and you're a very lucky guy. And as you say,
thanks to those rescuers who did the hard work. David
Graham rescued Tramper from the Tatadors and dog Winnie both
safe and well. For more from Hither Duplessy, Allen Drive,
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