ALPINE PARTY FOUND

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21084, 8 February 1934, Page 8

ALPINE PARTY FOUND

RESCUE BY AEROPLANE LANDING MADE ON RIVER BED The alpine party which set out from Gore on January 16 for Mount Aspiring, and which was reported to be eight days overdue, was discovered yesterday afternoon by Mr J. C. Mercer, instructor to the Canterbury Aero Club, at the junction of the Arawata and Waipara rivers, in South Westland. The men had food for two or three days, but were 20 miles from the nearest settlement in country so rough that it would have taken them about a week to walk out. All three were experienced climbers.

Mr Mercer landed on the shingle bed of the Arawata and carried two of the men to Okuru, further up the coast, and will return for the third this morning. In a telephone conversation with a representative of "The Press" last evening Mr Mercer, who flew to the Franz Josef Hotel for the night, said that he had discovered thg men without difficulty and had been able to make a safe landing on the river bed.

Food for Ten Days,

The party, Messrs James Speden, junior, of Gore, George Mcßridc, of Charlton, and Alex. Dickie, of WashpooJ, travelled from Gore via tho Eglinton Valley with Mount Aspiring as their objective. They carried food for 10 days and supplies were left in an alpine hut at tho foot of Mount Aspiring, to be used on the return journey. These supplies were found untouched yesterday, and it was believed that the men had gone towards Lake Alabaster and the headwaters of the Arawata river.

Mr Mercer, who had • previously flown over that country, left Christchurch about i) o'clock yesterday morning to make a search from the air. He lifted food supplies at Gore and set out for Queenstown to make his search from there.

Mr Mercer made light of the difficulties of the search when speaking from the Franz Josef Hotel last evening. "I found them easily enough," he said. "They were at the junction of the Arawata and Waipara rivers. I expected they would be somewhere about there. They were about 20 miles up the Arawata river."

Aeroplane Landed on Shingle.

After having located the men Mr Mercer dropped the food supplies he had picked up at Gore and later dropped some messages. He then flew to Okuru and attempted to get messages away to stop the search parties that had set out from Gore and Invercargill. FJying back to where he had discovered the pien ho landed on th.? shingle of the river.

The men had mistaken their way F.nd had followed the wrong river, Mr Mercer said. They had encountered floods in a number of places, but were all in good health. Their food was not exhausted, though the supply was running low. After landing at Okuru Mr Mercer flew to Franz Josef and communicated with Mr James Speden, senior, at Gore. He is expected home this evening, although he said last evening that he doubted if he would get back to-day.