Free at last!

By WARREN GAMBLE

Freed after 147 days as a hostage in the South American jungle, New Zealander Dennis Corrin rang his parents in Nelson last night and told them he had survived on a diet of rice, sardines "and the odd monkey."

The 52-year-old pilot, kidnapped with other oil workers by armed bandits in northern Ecuador last October, made the call shortly after his captors released him and seven other hostages in return for a reported $US13 million ($30 million) ransom.

For parents Stephen and Mary Corrin it was a voice they feared they might never hear again.

Stephen Corrin said his son sounded like his old self.

"He said he didn't know what all the fuss was about.

"He said he was getting pretty sick of the food: rice and sardines, and the odd monkey. They ate anything they [the bandits] could shoot."

Mary Corrin, who had watched her son on television as the hostages tasted freedom with a meal of beans and spaghetti, said he told her the captives had been looked after.

"He said he was pretty good and thrilled to be back."

Those who know him well were not surprised by his laid-back demeanour.

His brother-in-law, Neville Burns, of Nelson, said: "He's a good Kiwi bloke. He's a very resourceful bloke and he would get through when many others wouldn't."

The hostages, four Americans, a Chilean, an Argentine and Mr Corrin, walked out of the jungle after their employers paid the ransom last week.

The money - in randomly selected $100 notes - was dropped in a plastic bundle on the banks of a river separating Ecuador and Colombia on Friday.

The Ecuadorean military, who had been hunting the suspected Colombian bandits, picked up the exhausted hostages, some of whom had minor cuts and bruises.

They were given military uniforms to replace their ragged clothes and last night were back in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito.

The first New Zealander Mr Corrin saw was Chile-based diplomat Alex Wright, who shared a beer with him and reported him in good spirits.

An unidentified image of a shaggy-haired Mr Corrin with a Robinson Crusoe-like beard and the smile of a free man was flashed around the world shortly after the release.

After seeing the photograph, his brother, Kevin, said in Wellington yesterday that there was no mistaking him. "I'm not used to seeing him with a beard, but his eyes and nose say it's him.

"It's really quite a stunning moment, just a tremendous relief really."

From Quito Dennis Corrin is expected to fly to the Oregon base of his US employers, Erickson Air Crane, to meet his wife, Marguerite, who flew there on Thursday.

The couple, who have two adult children in Nelson, are then expected to return to New Zealand.

Overseas reports said the Spanish-Argentine oil company Repsol-YPF paid the huge ransom after months of negotiation and just before the February deadline set by the bandits to kill another hostage.

The bullet-riddled body of American oil worker Ronald Sander, aged 54, was found on a jungle road on January 31.

He had been shot five times in the back and was covered in a sheet scrawled with the Spanish words: "I am a gringo. For non-payment of ransom."

Mr Kevin Corrin said: "It shocked us. I don't think anybody expected that."

The past few days had been a strain as hopes of an earlier release proved premature. "It's certainly been a trial for the whole family," he said.

Dennis Corrin's 147-day ordeal began in darkness on October 12 when he and nine other workers were seized by up to 40 heavily armed men in military uniforms.

The carefully planned raid happened at a camp near Lago Agrio, a steamy outpost in the oil-rich jungle of northeast Ecuador near the border with Colombia.

Mr Corrin had just started work for Erickson Air Crane, moving parts of an oil rig.

The ambushed men were bundled into an oil company helicopter at the site and flown to a jungle hideout.

Two days later two French hostages escaped.

A worker who avoided the original ambush said most of the kidnappers spoke with Colombian accents.

Local media say they are likely to be part of the Commando America Libre criminal group, which has links to one of Colombia's warring leftist rebel groups, the National Liberation Army.

A United States hostage expert, Laura Mae Gardner, said kidnap victims needed professional help to ride a "rollercoaster of emotions."

They could experience problems including hyper-alertness, sleeping problems, communication difficulties, distress and insecurity.