Rescue 'a surprise’

Press, 20 February 1980, Page 1

Rescue 'a surprise’

PA Nelson A weak and thin Peter le-Fleming said from his hospital bed in Nelson last evening that after 29 days lost in rugged bush he could not at first believe that he had been found. Mr le-Fleming, aged 21, said that at the very last, when the search helicopter sighted him, he did not believe it.

He had heard helicopters and aircraft go over three times before but he never really thought they were looking for him. “I thought they were deer hunting,” he said. Mr le-Fleming spent almost a month lost in the Abel Tasman National Park trying in vain to find his way back to civilisation.

He said that with no food in his pack when he

left the Heaphy Track after a fall on January 20, he eked out an existence on worms, ferns, and a fish he found by a river. He dug for the worms with his bare hands. He said that as a parks and reserves department employee in Palmerston North he knew a “wee bit” about the plants that could sustain him in the bush. If he had had any means of making a fire, he believes he could have signalled or made his way _out faster. Mr le-Fleming said he slept during the day, and walked while chilled but wakeful at night. It was then that he thought of his family. He said he was forced to leave his first camp after five days, as the river began to rise.

Mr le-Fleming was transferred from the intensivecare ward of the hospital yesterday afternoon. The Assistant Medical Superintendent (Dr W. B. Jackson) said there was every chance he would be able to go home this weekend.

Dr Jackson said his weight loss amounted to his consuming almost two pounds of his own tissue a day. However, he did not think Mr le-Fleming would have any lasting physical effects from his ordeal. Mr le-Fleming yesterday enjoyed solid food again. He said that on Monday night he dreamed of hamburgers and milkshakes. His parents flew to Nelson yesterday afternoon and spent the rest of the day with him.