U.S. Students Survive 9 Days in New Zealand Wilderness

This was a pretty big story today, so you may have already seen it. Nevertheless, here are the reports from Fox News and the Daily Mail.

The two reports are basically the same, so I'll quote the highlights from the Fox News story:

Two U.S. students trapped in the New Zealand wilderness by a snowstorm trekked back out to safety after surviving their nine-day ordeal by rationing their meager supplies of trail mix and warming themselves in hot springs.

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The two students, on a foreign study program in New Zealand with University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, had planned to hike and camp for a few days at some hot springs on the country's South Island. But heavy rains and a snowstorm during the Southern Hemisphere winter prevented the couple from being able to cross a river and return.

"Unfortunately it rained and rained, day after day, and snowed," Alec Brown wrote in an email to The Associated Press Monday.

He said the nights were tough to take because the rain and sleet pounded down on the tarpaulin covering their sleeping hammock and the river roared -- reminding them all the time of their predicament.

When they realized they were going to be stuck they started rationing: "a biscuit and jelly one day," Brown wrote "and even less another."

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The couple didn't take much food -- some carrots, rice, peanut butter and trail mix, according to Police Sgt. Sean Judd, who coordinated rescue attempts.

After the river receded, the two were able to cross the river and hike out to where they met up with searchers.

Brown said he relied on his past experience hiking and camping and felt confident in the couple's ability to survive.

"I believe when you go into the bush you take your life into your own hands and need to be prepared to handle whatever conditions occur," he said. "We could have been more prepared, but in the end we were prepared enough to walk ourselves out."

The choice of food high in protein and carbohydrates were good choices for what was probably planned to be a relatively short duration hike, giving both quick and long term energy.