When Matt Barnes opened an email from the Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue Trust, he never expected to see images from his own rescue on the Old Ghost Road staring back at him.
“I looked at the pictures from Zack’s story and thought, that was me!”
Zack Armstrong is a paramedic on the West Coast Westpac Rescue Helicopter. The pictures featured in the Trust’s e-newsletter were from one of Zack’s most memorable jobs – flying into an area called The Boneyards near the Old Ghost Road to rescue a lost tramper.
But the way Matt describes it, he wasn’t really lost. Just very stuck.
“I’m pretty experienced in the outdoors and have hiked a lot off-trail, but this time the satellite images and topo app didn’t quite add up to what I faced!” Matt says.
Matt had spent the last three summers hiking the Te Aroroa trail. For the summer of 2023/2024 he aimed to circumnavigate Kahurangi National Park. He planned out his 30 day hike and set off from the Flora Carpark, near Nelson.
Nearly two weeks into his trip, on 31 December 2023, Matt set out on that day’s hike. It involved walking across the 1,000 acre plateau, heading through some bush before going along a ridgeline and down to connect to the Old Ghost Road.
“From the satellite images it looked relatively straightforward. I knew that near the connection with the Old Ghost Road the absolute worst case was that there was going to be an annoying scree slope to run down before having to take the track back uphill. But when I popped out of the bush what I thought would be a fairly gentle scree slope was a ginormous boulder field.”
Matt spent hours scrambling over the rocks; he says it was like being in an “utterly crazy maze.” The whole time he could see the Old Ghost Road below him.
“I was that close to it, but between me and the track was either impenetrable bush with a razorback ridge, a sheer cliff, or a dangerous scree slope that appeared to bluff out,” Matt explains.
“Going back the way I came was also not an option, as the rock turned out to be rotten; I had accidentally kicked several large boulders off unintentionally finding my way to where I was.”
Matt was out of options. He’d run out of water and the weather was starting to come in.
“At one of the huts I’d been reading an article about what to do if you have to set off a personal locator beacon and I remembered one tip – if you think you’re going to need to use it, set it off early while there’s still daylight. That stuck with me.
“I just had this thought that it’s going to be really stupid if they find my body with a perfectly good beacon sitting in the pocket.”
Matt set off his personal locator beacon and hoped for the best.
About an hour later, as Matt was starting to get pretty cold, he heard the sound of the rescue helicopter.
“Almost any noise you hear, you try to convince yourself it’s the rescue helicopter. When you finally hear it, and then see it coming, it’s a pretty great feeling – such a relief.”
Zack winched Critical Care Paramedic Rod down to Matt. After an assessment it was evident Matt wasn’t injured – just cold and very happy to see the rescue helicopter crew. Rod, Matt, and his pack were winched up into the helicopter and flown to safety.
“The crew asked me where my car was and I told them it was in Nelson. The pilot had a funny look on his face but then I explained what I was doing and said that I wanted to keep walking.”
Matt was delivered safely to the Department of Conservation hut on the Old Ghost Road. After a warm meal, and some rest, Matt continued his adventure.
Two and a half weeks later, Matt arrived back at his car, completing his loop of Kahurangi National Park.
Matt’s rescue was only possible thanks to him having a personal locator beacon, which alerted rescue crews to his plight.
“I’d had a beacon for 15 or so years and had never used it. It was years past its expiry, so I replaced it one week before I started on that trip. Turns out that was a great investment. I always suspected I would one day need the beacon because of a bad slip that broke a leg or something similar, never thought I’d need it for accidentally getting trapped.”
Matt is thankful for that decision, and for the rescue helicopter crew.
“Being a New Year’s grinch I thought I was doing a great job of avoiding people – I never expected to celebrate my New Year’s Eve with the rescue helicopter crew. But I’m so glad they were there for me that day – I’ll be forever grateful.”
