By Hawkes Bay Today

A hunter who'd huddled under a survival blanket for up to 48 hours after becoming lost in the Kaweka Range was winched to safety by rescue helicopter at the weekend. 

Senior Sergeant Andrew Knox, of Hawke's Bay Police SAR, said the Hawke's Bay Land Search and Rescue was alerted at about 7.30am on Saturday that a man was missing, and that he was found about 14 hours later. 

About 20 LandSAR staff, the Lowe Walker Rescue helicopter, a civilian search dog team from Taupo, local radio operators, Whanganui Police SAR and a civilian helicopter operator from Whanganui all became involved. 

Knox said the hunter had contacted a friend last Thursday night, advising he was in trouble but that he was going to make his way down river to get his bearings. 
But the police did not have the last known point for the hunter, which made it difficult to establish a search area and possible direction of travel, he said 

An Incident Management Team was established at the Hawke's Bay Coastguard headquarters in Westshore and police and land search and rescue volunteers entered the area. 

One of the team found the man mid-evening, beside a fire and huddled under the blanket, where he had camped beside a river for about 48 hours. He was tired and bruised, but otherwise in good health and happy to have been found, police said. 

The rescuers and the man were winched out, in what police described as an "excellent outcome". 

The hunter was "very fortunate, considering the time he had spent in the bush, with very few supplies," Knox said. 

Police said all hunters and outdoor users should carry a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) with them on all hunting and tramping trips, enabling instant alarm, including identifying location.