Desperate search for British hiker, 49, lost in New Zealand mountains
Desperate search underway for a missing British hiker, 49, lost in a rugged New Zealand mountain range as freezing conditions set in
- The 49-year-old man is missing in the Tararua Ranges near Wellington, NZ
- He was walking there but failed to return home to his wife on Saturday
- Temperatures plummeted to -10C on the mountain on Sunday night
A desperate search is under way for a British hiker who has not returned from a solo walk through a mountain range in New Zealand.
The 49-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was supposed return from the Tararua Ranges northeast of Wellington on Saturday.
Fears are growing for his safety after temperatures plummeted to -10C on the mountain on Sunday night.
A desperate search (pictured) is under way for a British man who has not returned from a walk though a mountain range in New Zealand
The 49-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was supposed return from the Tararua ranges (pictured) northeast of Wellington on Saturday
The man’s wife raised the alarm when he did not come back to their accommodation in the city on Saturday afternoon.
A Royal New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopter crew resumed the search on Monday morning after failing to find him on Sunday.
Police have found no sign of him in huts on walking routes.
It comes after the search for an Australian woman whose trekking group went missing in the Indian Himalayas yielded no results on its seventh day.
Ruth McCance, a corporate leadership coach from Sydney, is missing with seven other climbers – four from Britain, two from the US, and one from India.
They were part of a 12-member expedition taking on a previously unclimbed route up India’s second-highest peak, Nanda Devi East, which is 7,434m high.
The eight were doing a ‘recce’ to check the route but failed to return to base camp on Sunday 27 May. They are believed to have been caught in an avalanche.
A helicopter search on Sunday 3 June found their tents but saw no signs of life.
‘Chances of survival are bleak,’ said Vijay Jogdande, the top civil servant at the scene.
Indian Mountaineering Foundation spokesman Amit Chowdhury warned families to ‘prepare for bad news.’
Ruth McCance (pictured), from Sydney, and seven other climbers failed to return to base camp at Nanda Devi, the second highest mountain in India
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