I'm Kevin Biggar. And I'm Jamie Fitzgerald. And we're modern-day adventurers who have travelled all over NZ. In the past few years, we've traversed some of the most dangerous mountains,... LAUGHS: I left my ice axe! ...wildest rivers and rugged trails. Oh! Now we're stepping back in time, retracing the footsteps of early pioneers,... Whoa! ...bringing the past back to life with tales of heroic rescue attempts,... Just take it slow, Kev! ...shipwrecks,... Oh no! ...and deadly pursuits,... It's getting deep! ...where human endurance is pushed to the absolute limit. Argh. SPLASH! This week, we're in the Tararua Ranges in the lower North Island, an area of rugged terrain and wild weather. Attempting the first northern winter crossing of the range, three men and one woman vanish into the mist. The rain's making it so much harder. You just don't know what you can trust. As 200 police and volunteers comb the hills,... It's slippery. ...an eager press write the party off as dead. When the search fails to find them, their only hope is to save themselves. Oh! Oh! Just how could the rescue mission go so wrong? You're coming up to that root now, and it's not gonna hold ya. Oh yeah. Or were the trampers really at fault for making mistake after foolish mistake? Caught in two storms, they survived one, but the other would destroy lives. Copyright Able 2014 HELICOPTER BUZZES AMBIENT MUSIC We're on board a search and rescue helicopter, heading towards the highest point of the Tararua Ranges. It's a part of the country that deserves respect. In fact, of all the tramping regions around NZ, it's here that has claimed the most lives. AMBIENT MUSIC The area's rugged landscape and sudden weather changes made early exploration very difficult. In fact, it wasn't until the 1930s that the interior of the Tararuas began to be explored fully. In April 1933, a party of four ` three men and a woman ` set off to recce a possible winter route across the range. They had no idea that they were about to set off a chain of events that would divide the tramping community in two, rewrite the rules of search and rescue and ultimately change the course of their lives forever. Our journey will begin on one of the highest points in the Tararuas. Whoa! It's too dangerous for the pilot to land, so we'll have to be lowered. It highlights the expertise and precision of modern-day search and rescue teams. Whoo! However, back in 1933, there was no such thing as a coordinated search and rescue organisation. In fact, as part of their general duties, the police were expected to carry out search and rescue. When the four were reported missing in such difficult terrain, the police quickly realised they were totally ill-equipped to go look for them. In an attempt to find them, the local authorities called on the help of the tramping clubs, who, despite huge efforts, failed to locate them. When the details of the trip became public, rather than celebrating the journey of the trampers, they were taken apart by the press for the bad decisions they made. Bert O'Keefe, a Wellington civil servant; Eric Hill, an Englishman; and teachers Bill Sutch and Morva Williams were all in their 20s and all experienced trampers. So were they fools who endangered the lives of their would-be rescuers? Or were they heroes who realised their fate was entirely in their own hands? We've come to the Tararuas to find out. We'll do our best to follow the party's original footsteps and try and make sense of the decisions they made and the route that they took. And some of those decisions were based on the equipment that they took. It's the old kidney crushers. Hope your sides are looking forward to these things. What have you got? Oh yeah, we don't often get these ` maps. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) Fantastic. The southern part of the Tararua Ranges started to be explored a little bit more, but the northern sections were... Well, it was a bit greener back then. It doesn't go the whole way, you know. It doesn't go the whole way, you know. Hey, what do you think of this? Will this keep the rain off? Will this keep the rain off? It's a huge improvement. You should wear it the whole time. You should wear it the whole time. (CHUCKLES) Kev, eggs! You know, they said that the big advantage of taking eggs is that they were both liquid and food. Eating and drinking at the same time. I'm freaking out about having to have these in my pack. Just don't break any. OK, so we've got sleeping bags. They look pretty absorbent. Soak up any moisture we can find. Uh, but what we don't have` I can't see a tent. No, they didn't bring a tent. Their aim was to stay in huts. Not all of then even had sleeping bags ` only three out of the four. Do you know, in some ways we're lucky that we've got any clothes at all. I mean, there was a bit of a trend for nude tramping going on about now. Go easy. Go easy. (LAUGHS) Go easy. (LAUGHS) Go easy. They expected the journey would take them two days. They would spend the first night in Te Matawai Hut and the next day spend 15 hours walking the 40km to the hut at Mt Holdsworth. Eric Hill, who was the leader of the group, was the only one who had walked part of the track. He had done part of both sides, leaving a bit of about three hours in the middle that was completely unknown to any of them. Their intention was to become familiar with the route and act as a warm-up for a first winter crossing they'd planned later that year. You can feel the` feel the height, though. Can feel the altitude. Wow. Hey, you can see even the East Coast` oh, the West Coast over there where they'd come from. Levin. It's right there. And they were heading towards Masterton. And they were heading towards Masterton. I was born there, in Levin. Kevin from Levin. Kevin from Levin. Kevin from Levin. Kevin from Levin. Kevin from Levin. (SCOFFS) The first part of the trip was uneventful. Bert O'Keefe recalled, 'The tops were clear, the air was invigorating, and one felt like running for the sheer joy of it.' In excellent conditions, they made fast progress. But the Tararua Ranges are notorious for their fast-changing weather, and as they reached the tops, a gale started to pick up, and the mist started to descend ` a little bit like it is here. They found finding the route very tricky. The ridge weaves through rolling tussock hills with darker and larger peaks framing the horizon, every section revealing more of this imposing mountain range. Wow. The track just drops away. As they picked their way through the mist, looming in front of them was the biggest challenge on the route. Well, it comes in and out of view with the mist a few times, but there it is ` the Broken Axe Pinnacles. You can't miss it, really. You can't miss it, really. (LAUGHS) It's incredible ` the last thing you'd wanna see at the end of a 12-hour day walking. What we had today is nothing compared to what they would have had with the gale force winds wanting to just blow them over. They would have been exhausted and really, I think, frightened by the fact that the official route is to go over the top. Back then, you had to go straight up the ridge. From here, it just looks like a straight wall up. From here, it just looks like a straight wall up. Into even more wind. Man. It's a precarious little climb, all right. And as O'Keefe, Hill, Sutch and Williams approached, the wind reached gale force. It was so strong, in fact, that one member of the party was lifted completely off the ground by the strength of the gust. I'm holding on to some pretty dodgy little plants. (EXHALES) Oh. I'd hate to be doing this in a gale-force wind. (GRUNTS) Well, this bit's OK, because we're on the lee side of the hill. But just where Jamie's getting,... they would have started to feel the real teeth of the westerly wind. It was here that they faced a crucial choice. So what are their options? Well, how far have they come? 13 hours from Te Matawai Hut, to where they wanted to go ` three hours? So that's, kind of, a bit of a no-brainer, right? What else? Well, I mean, in theory... OK, so going back's not an option. In theory, they could go down to the bush, but they don't have a tent. What about... What about... ...going up? Well, you don't wanna get further into the storm and the wind. So... There's only one option. That's to try and find a path in the lee side, around the side of the` of` of the pinnacle. Getting around the peak was still not going to be easy. The only thing between us and the rocks below are tiny, mossy footholds, and all we have to grab on to is tussock and tree roots. And it's starting to hail. To make matters worse, as begin our traverse, the storm that's been threatening all day chooses the worst possible moment to arrive. It's hard to believe that just half-an-hour ago we were in bright sun. HAIL PATTERS You all right, Kev? You all right, Kev? Yeah. (GROANS, PANTS) We really have to make sure of our footholds, as it's a 30m drop to the rocks below. Argh. The rain is making it so much harder. You just don't know what you can trust. Oh, some of these are getting loose. OK, I'm gonna have to try and jump over to where you are, mate. Grab some tussock. I'll try and bring you in. Grab some tussock. I'll try and bring you in. One, two... (GROANS) (LAUGHS) That was sporty. I was worried I was holding on, and I'd pull you down. That was sporty. I was worried I was holding on, and I'd pull you down. I was holding on pretty tight. For the four trampers, it was around here that things really started to unravel. They were trying to make their way around a slippery bit just like this. Bert O'Keefe lost his feet. He fell, and as he fell he grabbed Eric Hill. They both dropped 30m on to rocks. At the bottom, for Eric Hill, he wasn't so bad. He'd landed on his pack. But for O'Keefe, when they caught up with him, he was covered in blood and unconscious. This one moment, this small misstep, was about to unleash a chain of events that would come to haunt the four forever. REFLECTIVE MUSIC 1 We're examining the controversial 1933 rescue mission in the Tararua Ranges that came to be known as the Sutch Search. The rain is making it so much harder. A storm has prevented their attempts to climb over the Broken Axe Pinnacles, and as they work their way around the side of the cliff, Bert O'Keefe and Eric Hill have plunged 30m off the face of the peak. Bert O'Keefe was unconscious for an hour. (PANTS) He had huge cuts in his head. He finally came to. They managed to plaster his head up, and they split out the rest of his pack amongst the other three` three of them. But by now it was getting late in the day, not much light left, and they had the weather on top of them, which was just getting worse and worse. So what were their options? So what were their options? Well, they had to decide whether their revised plan of pushing around and carrying on to the hut was still what they wanted to do. But` Or head down and get to the bush just to try and get out of the wind. But things had gone up a notch. They were desperate. They had to keep on moving. I don't reckon getting to that Holdsworth Hut was an option now. And it was right then they made the worst decision of the whole trip. You see, they had two choices ` they could go west or east. To go west meant to drop them down into a valley that had never been explored. Or go east, and it's a pretty simple walk down a river out to the farms. I mean, this wasn't about completing their planned journey now, right? This was getting shelter. And surely it was about survival for O'Keefe and making sure they could get through the night. So they pushed down and got to the bush` the bush line on the western side of the mountain. Down here. O'Keefe was still in a bad way, and a scramble to the bush line was difficult. The ground drops quite steeply, and in the fading light, it's hard to navigate. Oh! Oh, you all right? Oh, you all right? Yep. Oh. Oh! (CHUCKLES) Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. (PANTS) Jeepers. By the time the party made it under the shelter of the canopy, it was well after dark. You know, they were tired, exhausted ` just like us, really. They weren't very fussy about the place they chose. It was steep, but it would have to do. They didn't have a tent, though, so what they did` what they had to do was to tear apart one of the sleeping bags. (PANTS) A sleeping bag would offer some small protection from the rain, but the bush floor soon became muddy, and the slope made sleeping almost impossible. But they did manage to light a small fire. And the best news was that O'Keefe seemed to have escaped without any major injuries. The worst time for them, though, of their whole day, would have been standing around his unconscious body, wondering when he was going to come right again. And bleeding, you know. But they bandaged him up just by putting a balaclava around his head. I think they put plasters on him. But then they put the balaclava on. There were a few questions about him, anyway, weren't there? There were a few questions about him, anyway, weren't there? Yeah, that's right. In fact, a fifth person was planning to come on the trip, but he refused once he found that Bert O'Keefe was going to be on the team. And` Because just two months earlier, Bert O'Keefe had, uh` had gotten lost. The four had gone for a tramp, and he somehow had gotten split up. In the mist it took him two days to find his way back out. So he had a bit of a reputation. Yeah, I think` Nice pillow. These kidney crushers, they don't massage just your backs. I tell you what, there's a bar right across the back of the kidney crusher where your spine should go. There's no slouching in the 1930s. There's no slouching in the 1930s. (LAUGHS) There's no slouching in the 1930s. (LAUGHS) That's what I've learnt. The other thing I've learnt, Jamie? The other thing I've learnt, Jamie? Yeah. The other thing I've learnt, Jamie? Yeah. Don't pitch your tent on a hillside. Yeah, I think` To say what we've got is a tent is a bit of an overstatement. We've got a hammock. We've got a hammock. Yeah, we've got a water catcher. Speaking of which, I'm pleased it's stopped raining. (SIGHS) Oh, if it starts teaming down tonight, um... Well, actually, it's probably safer under` digging a hole, actually. Well, actually, it's probably safer under` digging a hole, actually. BOTH CHUCKLE SOFT CLASSICAL MUSIC When the sun came up, they finally had a chance to work out exactly where they were. O'Keefe was pretty shaken up, but he could still travel. Overnight the wind had strengthened, and they believed that heading back to the tops was no longer an option. So they decided to carry on down toward the valley floor. Of course, they'd only had enough food for the few days that they'd planned to get to Holdsworth, and that was all changing now, so they needed to be careful. But Morva Williams, you know, she'd had years of bushcraft, and she was pretty savvy with it, so they probably figured out that it was time to start rationing their food. Now, when O'Keefe fell over and Hill tumbled over as well, you know, they broke some of their eggs. And so it was around now that they said, 'Look, we need to, kind of, gobble up the broken stuff.' And we didn't fall over, but it's probably time to have an egg for breakfast. I don't have anything to add to it, but, uh... I don't have anything to add to it, but, uh... Just tap it on its head. I don't need to tell you. You know how to suck eggs. Don't, no` Don't tell me how to suck eggs. This is so bad. So I think it's the, uh... Oh, look at that. Oh, look at that. And then the other end as well. Oh, look at that. And then the other end as well. Oh yeah. (CHUCKLES) I saw Rocky do this. RHYTHMIC DRUM MUSIC They did, of course, have a map, and they knew exactly where they were. Their plan now was to head down the Waiohine River and bypass the most exposed part of the range then, at Francis Creek, climb back up to the ridge and make the short journey to Holdsworth, sheltered on the eastern side of the range. All going well, they should make the hut by mid-afternoon. See a route? Yeah, I can see a route. It's straight down, but it's a r... (CHUCKLES) But just getting down to the river would be a feat in itself. Oh no, no, no. Look at that. Oh, that goes down a bit. That's gonna be a 5m drop. It's a pretty wicked slip-and-slide. That's gonna be a 5m drop. It's a pretty wicked slip-and-slide. (LAUGHS) I think we can do it. As long as you hold on to the vegetation on the side, there's a pretty good route. there's a pretty good route. All right, OK. You right? You right? OK. Travelling down waterfalls is often the easiest route when travelling in dense, steep bush. Looks like it'll hold me. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You can kind of` You can kick a little bit in. It's not always the best idea to rely on the foliage for handholds, however. These roots are coming out. But at least here the dangers are obvious and in the open. In dense bush, a sheer drop can often be masked by fallen branches or leaves. Whoa! You good? You good? Yeah, good. It's pretty slippery all down there. Kevin's a much more confident climber than me,... < You're coming up to that root now, and it's not gonna hold ya. < You're coming up to that root now, and it's not gonna hold ya. Oh, I reckon it will. ...mainly because he always has complete faith that the tiniest twig will hold his weight and that the laws of physics... Argh! Oh yeah. Argh! Oh yeah. Yeah, no, that's good. You good? ...are only a theory. < Try and move to your left a bit if you can. < Try and move to your left a bit if you can. Oh, these` these ones are good. It's really slippery. And with all the grace of a bulldozer, Kevin makes it to the bottom. You all right? You all right? Yeah, not too bad. You all right? Yeah, not too bad. Those knees look pretty scraped. Yeah, not too good. You know, for the party, they weren't late yet. This was only day three. In terms of their original plan, you know, coming down the river here was just a deviation. They must have been pleased they were out of the worst of the weather at the tops. But as they came down obstacles like this, they must have started to wonder if they'd made the right decision to head down. And they must have started to think that maybe they were being drawn into a really nasty trap. OK. But their plan to travel up Francis Creek suddenly hit a major snag. The rain had created hundreds of creeks all feeding into the river. Their map and their plan was now useless. As they travelled down the river bank, they tried very hard to stay out of the water, mostly because it was autumn, and the water was freezing cold. But, of course, this was the Waiohine River. No one before had explored it. They had no idea what was around the corner. So they went to extreme efforts to climb the bluffs and keep out of it,... ...until finally they came to a gorge, and they couldn't get round. They tried for two hours to get up the cliffs. It didn't work. Eventually, they had to come back down and get into the water. What do you think, Kev? Bags above heads? And where we can, we'll try and cling on to the edges a bit. It's gonna be cold. Let's go. The water is clear but cold. On the surface, it looks less than a metre deep, but looks can be deceiving. Oh! We're soon up to our necks. Then suddenly, the water is over our heads, and we're swimming. Our packs and boots act like lead weights. It's pretty clear if you hoped to stay alive, then travelling in the river was not an option. Are you coming to me? In here. I can't touch the bottom yet. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Oh, here we go. Here we go. These boots, though. Oh, here we go. Here we go. These boots, though. Oh, here's a rock. Oh, that was freezing. It's cold. Look at the water. There's just no buoyancy in them any longer. And the boots were s` sucking us down. Wasn't such a smart idea. Wasn't such a smart idea. You know, for the trampers as well, they were coming around here, and they reached the point where the river continued to rise, cos the rain just didn't stop. They realised they just couldn't carry on any longer. The plan now was to forget about Francis Creek and bush-bash their way to the top of the range and to the safety of Holdsworth Hut. But first they had to find a way out of the gorge. The problem, though, is that you can see travelling along this side of the river ` I mean, it's miserable. And for them, it was getting late in the day, the weather wasn't getting any better, and, of course, O'Keefe wasn't feeling good, either. Just across the other side was a brilliant campsite. But the thing is, if you cross, and it rains more, and the river comes up, you could get stuck on the far side and never make your way back. But we're up in the head waters, so if it comes up pretty quick, maybe it goes down pretty quick. Yeah. I mean, that makes sense to me. No way you could camp here. Look at the sides. Sheer slopes. I think they're now just trying to get through each day. So it makes perfect sense to me to cross over. That's exactly what they did. They crossed to the true right, the more western side of the river, and set up camp in a clearing. It would be a fateful decision. So overnight, it started to rain even harder. And when they woke up the next day, they found the river was flooded and impossible to cross. They'd been on the west bank, and things were going OK. But then it turned on them. They were now on the wrong side of a flooded river. With no way up the sheer walls of the gorge and now a flooded river between them and their escape route to Holdsworth, O'Keefe, Hill, Sutch and Williams inched their way down the riverbank. Are you gonna go up and see if you can get a way over? Are you gonna go up and see if you can get a way over? Yeah. How cold are ya? How cold are ya? Pretty cold. Just glad not to be in that river any more. (GRUNTS) I mean, they must have spent a lot of time wet, eh? I mean, they must have spent a lot of time wet, eh? (SCOFFS) Yeah. They must have done. You think it dawned on them they were in trouble? I think, after four days of doing this, they knew that plan B wasn't working. They'd have to start working on plan C and D. The new plan was the most promising yet ` they would give up the crossing and instead try to head back to the West Coast. If their map was to be believed, if they could get back up to the tops and join up with the Greytown-to-Otaki track, it would just be an easy day's stroll back to civilisation. By now they'd been away for about a week, which meant they were about four days overdue. Leaving the river to head up was great, and the bush was more open, but with their heavy laden packs up the steep slopes, travel was murder. The scree slopes and rock faces they had to climb... But there was... (GRUNTS) there was one thing that became their big problem, and that was it became cold ` very cold. (PANTS) But far below, in the towns of Masterton and Greytown, the police had finally been informed that the party was now overdue. The local tramping clubs were notified and search parties formed. They knew the area well and were extremely confident in their own ability. If the missing four were alive, they would find them. REFLECTIVE MUSIC We're examining the controversial 1933 rescue mission in the Tararua Ranges that came to be known as The Sutch Search, attempting to shed new light on the official story to uncover the truth. By now, the party was five days overdue, and a search centred on the track along the tops had begun. But the weather had forced O'Keefe, Hill, Sutch and Williams further south, meaning they were now outside the main search area. As they climbed higher, in an attempt to reach the Greytown to Otaki track, almost impossibly, the weather got worse. Hailstorms, thunder and lightning caused them to set up camp and stay there under a tree stump for three nights and two days while the storm passed. DRAMATIC MUSIC Eventually, it stopped raining. Trouble was it began to snow. And it was more than half a metre deep. They were sinking up to their knees as they grovelled their way up toward the ridge lines. In the extreme cold, in the deep snow and no gloves, climbing became impossible. Good on ya, Kev. Good on ya, Kev. (CHUCKLES) Good on ya, Kev. (CHUCKLES) Break a trail, mate. (GROANS) You all right? Oh, yeah. (GRUNTS) Oh, yeah. (GRUNTS) That's it. That's it. (PANTS) Oh! Oh! (PANTS) How's that? Oh! (PANTS) How's that? Fantastic. We're on the top. Pretty tiring, though. Pretty tiring, though. (PANTS) The last bit was hell. For the trampers, you know, they were exhausted. By the time they got up here to the tops, they tried lighting a fire, but they couldn't make one big enough to heat one cup of water. When Bert O'Keefe took off his boots, both his feet were black, and part of his foot stayed in the boot. (SCOFFS) It's just hard to imagine. They realised that a night up here would have been suicide and also that the Greytown-to-Otaki track was now no longer an option. Caught between certain death on the mountain top and the flooded river, well, they had no choice. They had to head back down to the river and wait for the flood to subside. Living the dream, mate (!) Living the dream, mate (!) (CHUCKLES) But as the days stretched out and the weather got worse, the local paper, The Evening Post, believed it was now impossible for anyone to have survived the storm and that the searchers were now looking for bodies. The conditions were so rough that the rescue teams themselves were finding it hard to survive the extreme weather. Already, two men had ended up in hospital. The searchers, by now, were looking for a static... (GRUNTS) group of trampers, but when they didn't find them, they believed something bad had happened. The upper reaches of the Waiohine Gorge had never been explored. Why would Hill, Sutch, O'Keefe and Williams come to a place where nobody had ever been? There was a bit of good news, of sorts, for the trampers. They had stumbled across the confluence of the Waiohine and Hector rivers, and it meant they were able to pinpoint on their map exactly where they were. At least they weren't lost ` not that it did them much good. So, you've just survived three days of absolute hell up in the snow. When you finally come down here, and you get warm, you must be tempted to` Well, warm-ish, right? Well, warm-ish, right? You must be tempted to stay. Why didn't they just stay here? I don't know. I mean, they could've` They must have felt a bit in control. Williams was pretty clever in bushcraft. She must have been teaching them or sharing a few skills. I suppose so. I think, also, the fact that now they could see the confluence, they knew, for once, exactly where they were. They'd been a bit vague until now. Now they knew where they were. That must have given them some sort of... some sort of excitement. That must have given them some sort of... some sort of excitement. What? Excitement? Like they were finding something new? This was an adventure? Like they were finding something new? This was an adventure? BOTH CHUCKLE The searchers wouldn't have liked to have known that. The searchers wouldn't have liked to have known that. I don't think so. They kept on going, though, right? They kept on going, though, right? Yeah, that's what we gotta do. Their plan now was to follow the river until they could find a place to safely cross. O'Keefe seemed to have recovered well from his fall, and, in fact, they were all remarkably still in good condition. If only they weren't so hungry. The food per day per person was one spoon of jam, one spoon of dried malted milk, one spoon of sugar and a mug of tea. It was 14 days since they left Levin's railway station. Their supplies of food, by now, were nearly out. They were starting to have to look at really desperate options. One thing they tried was eating the, uh` the fleshy part` the` the pulpy part of the kiekie vine. Jamie, after you. That's a good one. (LAUGHS) (GROANS) (GROANS) It's supposed to taste like fruit, but... I think this one needs a couple more days. (CHUCKLES) I haven't eaten many broomsticks, but this is a bad one. (SPITS) (GROANS) What they said was that it was really hard to digest on an empty stomach. It's pretty easy to see why. But day 14 was special for another reason. For once, it was fine. They could build a big fire, start to dry out their clothes. And as they were doing it, they heard and then they saw a plane through the trees. They did everything to make the fire as big as possible, and that included grabbing as much as they could to make as much smoke as possible. And after they did it, they looked up through the canopy of the trees to see if the plane had seen it. He had seen them, but he didn't give any sign. And when he returned to base, he reported that he'd seen smoke, but nothing was done about it. It's crazy, eh? You know, back then, maybe it was that the coordination of these big search and rescue operations was so difficult that, you know, who was to say that it wasn't other searchers or anything like that? Right. I think the biggest impact it would've had on them was that they saw the plane fly off without giving any sign. I mean, it gave them some hope, and now that hope left. Now they knew that their escape was entirely up to them. REFLECTIVE MUSIC 1 We're in the lower North Island's Tararua Ranges trying to make sense of one of the most controversial incidents in NZ's backcountry history ` the aborted rescue attempt that became known as The Sutch Search. After almost two weeks of appalling weather, the newspapers had written the party off as dead. With the would-be rescuers themselves often needing to be rescued and still no sign of the trampers, the authorities began to believe they were now most likely on a body recovery mission. But those bodies were still very much alive and bashing their way downriver. When the Sutch party came through here, it was after some of the worst weather on record. It had rained almost constantly for two weeks. All the stones you see here would have been covered in water. It's freezing cold, and once again the clear water makes it extremely hard to judge the depth. Oh! You just don't know what's in the river. You going good? You going good? Yup. You good? It's a tricky boulder hop, especially if you're carrying a camera. OK, Muz? SLOW DRUMMING OK, you ready? One, two... Oh! Oh! You all right? Oh! You all right? Oh, I banged my knee! Your knee all right? Can we get over? Your knee all right? Can we get over? Yeah. (GROANS) (GROANS) (GROANS) Oh, you can` it's a real dent. You just couldn't see the rock. We were stepping into the white water there, and I thought it was gonna be quite deep. They would've been out here for two weeks crossing the rivers like this. They've already got one hurt person with Bert O'Keefe. If anything more goes wrong, they're gonna be in a world of pain. And they didn't know how far it was to go. And they didn't know how far it was to go. Exactly. This just goes to show how easy it can be for just a little thing to go wrong. I mean, this is all right, but could so easily have been worse. And they must have done this hundreds and hundreds of times. They had now travelled to the very edge of their map, but the best news was the terrain was beginning to flatten out. That's a bit better. Beautiful. However, that created a new set of problems. In the bush, it doesn't take much, sometimes, just to lose your direction, especially when you're in the covered canopy. And when the weather hasn't been so kind, sometimes the light just disappears on you, and you can't see the sun. There was one simple solution, though. Throughout the journey, O'Keefe, Hill, Sutch and Williams would climb trees in order to get some idea about what the landscape was doing. I think we're gonna have to do that now. When we say 'we', I think we mean you. We only need one person. Away you go, Lord Greystoke. You can get up there. (EXHALES, SPITS) Nah, you need... Oh, I can't climb up. I'll lift you up there to` Just... Oh, I had a big lunch of strawberry jam, so... Oh, I had a big lunch of strawberry jam, so... Only one way of solving this. Oh, OK. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) Whoo! (GROANS) You're doing very well. Let me` Are you gonna get your other one up there? You poor <BLEEP>. You poor <BLEEP>. You ready? You poor <BLEEP>. You ready? Yup. (GROANS) Now, climbing a tree sounds easy, and it might have been once, but now, uh, not so much. Oh, that's it. Oh, that's it. Now I think you have the easy job. Oh, that's it. Now I think you have the easy job. BOTH SCOFF (SPITS) < How high do you think you'll go? < How high do you think you'll go? (PANTS) Oh, I need to go a few more... a few more limbs. (PANTS) You're doing good. Oh yeah, you can definitely see the flats here. Can ya? Can ya? Whoo. Yeah. Can ya? Whoo. Yeah. How far? Uh, it wouldn't be more than half a K. You know, what the trampers saw was the most wonderful sight. Over in the distance was a herd of cattle grazing next to the river. This surely meant that civilisation was near and that they were safe. But as they headed for the flats, far from taking them to safety, their path was leading them toward the most unbelievable and controversial moment of the whole journey. TENSE MUSIC 15 days after leaving the Levin Railway Station and having survived the fall off the Broken Axe Pinnacles,... The rain is making it so much harder. ...the flooded Waiohine River,... Oh, here's trouble! ...the dense bush and the freezing tops and after surviving on a teaspoon of jam a day, their relief as they approached a field of gently-grazing cattle must have been enormous. After everything they'd been through, they finally walked out on to Totara Flats. But the thing is they'd travelled so far south that this was the last landmark on their map. They made a huge fire, the largest of the whole trip, and dried all their clothes. The next morning, things improved even more. It was only the second fine day of the whole trip. They really thought they were saved, so they ate the last of their food. What do you think, Jamie? Is that a good idea? What do you think, Jamie? Is that a good idea? Silly move. Gotta be silly move. They'd seen the cows, you know, but so what? You see a cow. Who cares? You can't blame them. They would have been absolutely starving, and this place looks like a big farm. (SIGHS) It's only a farm till you see the farmer, I reckon. (SIGHS) It's only a farm till you see the farmer, I reckon. (CHUCKLES) There's a twist in the tale. Totara Flats is nowhere near civilisation. Those cattle that they saw, they were being farmed, but there was no permanent homestead. If they'd had a better map, they'd have known there's two more gorges between here and the nearest farmhouse. And if they'd had a bigger map, they would have known that only across the river was Sayers Hut,... ...which, right at the time they passed it, was filled with a party of searchers who had a fire going. Yet somehow they missed it. But it's so easy to see how. It's almost indistinguishable from the mist. I can't blame them for walking straight past. They got a bit of grief afterwards by the searchers, almost to the point` suggesting that they were trying not to be found. Doesn't make any sense to me. Not after two weeks. As they passed within 100m of the searchers who were waiting inside the hut, the trampers saw footprints on the side of the river. But they assumed they probably belonged to an earlier search party. They still must have had some expectations. Totara Flats covers over 200 acres. It feels like a road must be around the next corner. What they saw instead must have almost broken them. (SIGHS) Oh. Well... After everything they'd been through, they walked to the end of the grassy flats, and there in front of them were the sheer, dark walls of yet another gorge. They would battle on for a further 48 hours. They'd now been away for 17 days with nothing to eat for the last four. They began hallucinating through lack of food. And psychologically, this must have become the biggest challenge, as the gorges down this section of the river are the worst of all. REFLECTIVE MUSIC As they made their way down the final stretch of gorge, suddenly they heard voices from the other side of the river. But it wasn't searchers, though. It was just people from the Carterton Tramping Club. They were just out on a day trip. But they did help the four missing trampers cross the flooded stream. At last, they were safe. They were given food, cups of tea and taken to Masterton. (PANTS) They were given food, cups of tea and taken to Masterton. (PANTS) (CHUCKLES) Having miraculously survived one storm, at the press conference in Masterton, they walked head first into another. Sutch thanked the searchers, but as the meeting broke up, Eric Hill's parting quip was, 'We were not lost', to which Bill Sutch added, 'No, and we were never found.' These words would cause an outcry which almost became as much of an ordeal as the one they'd just escaped. Week after week, they were attacked in the press and by the authorities for the decisions that they took. They were held up to be fools for wasting everyone's time and, worse, for putting at risk the lives of the searchers. The narrative firmly focused on the trampers rather than the unsuccessful search. And then there was the innuendo. Just what was a lone unmarried woman doing in the hills with these three single men? The stress of Morva Williams became unbearable. Bill Sutch eventually married Morva in an attempt to restore her honour. We started this journey talking about whether they were heroes or idiots. What do you think? There's no question that what they achieved was amazing, particularly now we've seen and walked the route they've been on. It's incredible. The irony of this story, for me, is that after all of those challenges they went through, it's almost like the biggest challenge came after they got outta the bush. It seems to unfair now, after everything they had achieved, that they got dumped on in` in the press. They made unfortunate comments at the press conference. When Hill wanted to make a point at the end that 'we were never lost', it just read so badly in the newspapers the next day. It made them sound like they were really ungrateful for the search. It made them sound like they were really ungrateful for the search. The media lapped that up, though. They wanted something to go wrong. They would've preferred, I think, a few corpses involved in the story. It would have sold more. But either way, it seems that when we think of the entire trip, they're heroes, right? Absolutely. I think it's one of the greatest survival stories that have ever taken place in NZ. Ginger nut? Ginger nut? Oh, thanks very much. MOMENTOUS MUSIC SOFT PIANO MUSIC Captions by Sarah Maiava. Edited by Tom Wilson. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2014