Women, girls found in bush

Press, 29 August 1986, Page 4

Women, girls found in bush

PA Wellington Rescuers found two women and twin girls, aged three, huddled together to keep warm in the Rimutaka Forest Park early yesterday. A search was mounted after the family failed to return home. Mrs Barbara Gray and her mother tucked Mrs Gray’s twin daughters under their jerseys on Wednesday evening when it seemed as if they would have to spend the night in the bush.

The four had taken their lunch and headed into the park, in Wainuiomata, about 11.30 a.m. They had intended taking a day walk, but when darkness fell they were still about 35 minutes walk from the main road, and decided to sit down to wait out the night Mrs Gray said she and her mother each took one of the children and tucked them under their jerseys. Everyone was warmly dressed. “I knew they would be worried at home,” Mrs Gray said. The police were alerted in the early evening when the four failed to arrive. A search party found the women and children on the main track about 2 a.m. yesterday.