Lost boy: 'I had to get out of there'

Baily Read's only real complaint was sore feet after his pig hunting ordeal. Photo / Otago Daily Times

When Baily Read found himself lost in the bush he knew one thing for certain - he had to get to help before nightfall, even if that meant scrambling over rugged hills for 21km.

The 10-year-old had been pig hunting on Sunday in Lumsden, Southland, with two adult friends and stopped to eat his lunch while they went to get a pig the dogs had bailed up.

He walked down to meet them but lost sight of them and got lost. And that's where his adventure really began.

"I just realised I had to get out of there before night ... It would have been cold and I didn't want to be there then."

Baily headed for the hills. "I went to the tallest hill I could find. I was looking for houses and the road."

He couldn't see any at first so walked in a straight line until he came to the first of three houses that were all empty. Along the way he scrambled over fences and walked over hilly terrain.

"It was quite hard because it was all up and down, harder than on the flat."

He had a thick hunting T-shirt on and food and water in his backpack, but didn't allow himself much time to stop.

"Maybe about 10 seconds, sometimes, for a bit of rest. My water bottle would get empty every once in a while so I would dip it in the creek and fill it up."

Asked what would have happened if it had gotten dark he said: "I would have kept walking ... I had to get somewhere before night. I wasn't worried I'd get in trouble [but] only had a T-shirt on and it would have been cold."

When he got to the fourth house he started towards it when he "saw people moving on the dairy farm".

His only complaint yesterday was for his feet.

"They're pretty sore," he told the Herald. Aside from the sore feet he only had a few scratches. His mum, Katrina Read, was at work and had no idea her son was missing until the dairy farmer rang to say he had been found.

"I didn't know he was lost until the lady at the dairy farm rang me.

"I was a bit shocked but thought they must be close by. And of course I didn't know how long he'd been missing because they had no cellphone reception to let me know."

She phoned her panicking friends to let them know Baily was safe. "They'd spent probably about four hours or so looking for him ... one was still looking for him and the other got the cops to get a rescue party."

She was amazed at how far he had walked.

"I was definitely shocked. It's a big trek for anyone, let alone a kid. He must have done it in about 4 to five hours [so] it's a lot of distance in a short amount of time."

They'd been camping before but the weekend's pig hunting trip was only Baily's second hunting trip.

Senior Constable Peter Gear, of Lumsden police, said Baily did well to get himself to safety but the best thing to do in that situation was to stay where you are.

"It's very hard if we're starting searching in an area where he was last seen. It would have taken us some time to work out where he'd gone. If you know where you're going then that's fine but if you don't, stay at the last point someone saw you."

Mr Gear also advised taking some form of light into the bush. "Whether its a cellphone or torch or a match ... If you have some form of illumination we will find you very quickly."