Wellington/Prague, Aug 25 (CTK) – Czech honorary consul in Queenstown, Vladka Kennett, on Thursday praised a Czech female tourist for being able to survive in a remote cabin for a whole month and waiting for rescue after the death of her Czech partner in the New Zealand mountains covered with snow.
The Czech woman was found in the cabin on the Routeburn Track on August 24.
As the Czech couple did not tell anybody about their hiking plans, nobody was missing them and nobody searched for them, Kennett said.
Only after relatives in the Czech Republic became concerned about the couple and contacted friends in New Zealand, the Czech consular office addressed the police this week and a search was launched, she said.
Given her psychological and physical condition and given the conditions on the track, the woman did the best thing she could, Kennett said about the decision to keep waiting in the cabin.
It is one of the hiking rules that people should stop and wait for being rescued if they get lost, she added.
The Czech tourist said her partner fell from a steep hill and died four days after they set out on the hike together on July 24. After the man’s death, she spent three days in the wild and then finally found a hut of the park’s wardens.
The New Zealand police said the Czech couple was well equipped for the hike and had some experience with walking in the New Zealand bush, but that they lost the trail.
The hut was closed, but there was firewood and food in it, according to The Guardian.
The police said there was a radio transmitter in the hut, but the woman did not know how to use it. The police also said it seemed unusual that nobody revealed the woman for such a long time.
During the summer season the Routeburn Track is rather frequented, but in winter it is officially closed.
