Juanita Miln’s gut told her she had no choice; she had to push the button on her PLB.
But her car was parked just 3km down the river and, as a hiking guide, would it be a bad look admitting you were stuck?
But sense prevailed.
“I knew it would be really stupid if we tried to cross that river. Pushing the button on my personal locator beacon really was the right thing to do,” Juanita says.
It was 12 November 2025 and, on a day off from guiding, Juanita and a friend, Sandrine, were on a day trip in Arthur’s Pass National Park.
“We went from Hawdon Shelter, up Pyramid Peak, traversed the summits and dropped down this beautiful scree slope into the Sudden Valley. It’s a nice loop.”
Juanita had trekked in that valley before, but it had changed.
“The first thing I noticed was the flood damage; trees stripped bare of bark and massive rocks wedged in between the trees. There’d been a huge amount of water come down that valley.”
But the adventure was going well, and the river crossings were “absolutely fine”. Until they came to the last big one, in a gully between two bluffs.
“I just looked at it and thought, I don’t know if we can get across here”.
This was the last technical bit of river left to cross before they were on the river flats to the car park.
“The river was swift and deep. I was hunting around trying to find a spot where there was less flow so a river crossing would be possible.
“There was a bit where you could drop down into a pool. It was quite bubbly, but it wasn’t going to take you in the main drift. I thought we could possibly jump into there but then further on I could see it all funnelling quite quickly over another rock and I thought, oh, we probably can’t get past that.”
Juanita also considered walking up the river to a shelter, but says the forecast was for rain that night and the following day.
“We had enough gear with us to have an uncomfortable night in the bush but we’d still be in the valley, and when it rains, the river’s going to rise.”
Juanita also considered going back the way they’d come, but it would have been a huge trek, they would have lost daylight, and were already tired.
“I went through every idea and option in my mind before I was willing to set the beacon off. But every option was like yeah, nah. The swiftness and flow of the river at that spot was just so unexpected.”
The advice from friends who work on the rescue helicopter was also top of Juanita’s mind.
“They have always told me they prefer picking up uninjured people rather than finding someone who’d been washed down a river and was hurt, or worse.”
Sending the signal for help
Juanita activated her PLB and then prepared for the rescue helicopter.
“The PLB was flashing with a white strobe, so I knew it was working. I set it on a rock at the edge of the river, so it had the best signal to the sky above.
“I laid our bright raincoats on the riverbed to help the rescue crew sight us through the trees. I wanted to make it as easy as possible for them to find us.”
One hour and twenty minutes later, they heard the sound of the rescue helicopter.
“It’s like we were hallucinating because the river was noisy. We kept saying ‘is that a helicopter? No, that’s just the river’. But then there was a noise getting louder, and then we saw it overhead. It was a great relief to wave to the rescue helicopter crew and know they’d seen us.”
A rescue helicopter paramedic was winched down through the bush.
“As the paramedic started getting lower I grabbed their foot to guide them down straight. When I looked up I said ‘Oh, Juliet, it’s you!’”
That is Juliet Fitzpatrick, Critical Care Paramedic on the Westpac Rescue Helicopter. Juanita and Juliet knew each other.
Preparing to be winched onto the Westpac Rescue Helicopter
“Sandrine was just wondering what was going on and why was I hugging this rescuer!” Juanita laughs.
Juliet and the crew winched Juanita and her friend to safety, dropping them at the Hawdon campground near where their car was parked.
Juliet says Juanita made the right decision to activate her personal locator beacon.
“I enjoy tramping and know how quickly rivers can change. No matter how well prepared we are, sometimes the unexpected happens and we need to ask for help.
“The river Juanita was facing was flowing fast; there was no way they should have tried to cross it and there was no other easy way out. I’ve seen what happens when people don’t make the right decisions; it can be catastrophic,” Critical Care Paramedic Juliet says.
Juanita rang the Department of Conservation the next day and warned them about the flood damage to the track and the challenging river.
Juliet and Juanita on the Westpac Rescue Helicopter
“They said they’d heard there was a bit of damage but no one had given quite as much detail as I had. Hopefully that helps guide their advice to other track users.”
Adventuring this summer? Learn from how Juanita worked out if the river was safe.
Juanita has completed nine seasons as a guide for Hiking New Zealand and her adventures have taken her to Peru, Nepal and Southeast Asia.
She says when coming to crossing a river, consider how you’re going to get in and out of the river and what obstacles are downstream.
“That day there were massive boulders all through the river. That was a sign that if we tried to cross it and lost our footing, we would have been likely to get hurt, if not something worse.”
Juanita also has a tip for assessing a river’s speed.
“You should be able to walk beside the river at your natural speed and be at the same speed, or faster, than the river. In our case, the river was raging. You also have to remember the river could be deeper and swifter a couple of steps further in.
“I tested the river by putting one foot in just at the edge of it; my leg was shaking just with the pressure.”
Juanita says once water gets above your knee and up to your hip, you have very little stability and control over what you’re doing.
“It can very quickly become hard to hold against the force of the river. The faster the river’s going, the more force is on you.”
With just day packs on, Juanita also knew they would have less weight holding them down than if they were carrying full tramping packs.
“If we’d have lost our footing we would have been bouncing off big boulders. While it might have flattened out after about 100 metres, that’s a long way to travel in a river; a long way to bounce off boulders.
“You hear about when things go wrong in river crossings. I didn’t want to be a statistic. I have a healthy respect for the water and I was so grateful the rescue helicopter was there for us that day. Setting off our personal locator beacon really was the safest option, and the result was that everyone ended the day safe. That’s the most important thing.”
