Rescued climber tells of ordeal

Lee Whitham is praising the efforts of the volunteer alpine search teams and the police communications staff who came to his aid. Photo / Facebook

An injured Australian climber lost on Mt Taranaki is astonished a police staffer paid for phone data to give searchers a vital breakthrough in their hunt for him during a marathon night rescue.

Lee Whitham is praising the efforts of the volunteer alpine search teams and the police communications staff who came to his aid in shocking conditions nine days ago after he became lost and broke his ankle on the notoriously deceptive peak.

Now recuperating in New Plymouth following surgery to his badly fractured joint, the novice climber said he was taken aback by efforts made to get him back down alive.

"The fact that they were all volunteers and had taken a day to walk through the rain to get me out of there makes them a bunch of legends," said Mr Whitham.

Lee Whitham was taken to hospital for treatment where two screws were inserted into his fractured bones. Photo / Facebook

He was also surprised to learn central communications leader Kirsty Henson, who had been communicating with him by text through the night, had gifted the $10 data top-up for an app that is being credited with saving his life.

"Did she? I'm astonished she would do that,"a surprised and grateful Mr Whitham said.

The generous act recently came in for special commendation by Police Commissioner Mike Bush.

Mr Witham said a spur of the moment decision to head for the summit without proper outdoor gear meant he was ill-prepared when the weather suddenly deteriorated.

"I could see the summit right in front of me but instantly the weather turned bad and I couldn't see three metres in front of me and then the rain kicked in," he said.

The low cloud meant he walked past the track's signpost and quickly became lost.

"I decided to just keep heading down until I got out of the clouds, came across a bluff line and found a 3m-high vertical drop and tried to climb down. I ended up slipping and sliding down on my back and rammed my leg into a boulder."

Unfortunately his resting place was on a steep slope covered with wet rocks and he feared any movement would cause him to slide uncontrollably down the mountain.

After raising the alarm Mr Whitham began a six-hour wait for rescuers to find him.

"Where I was there was no cover for me, it was raining the whole time and I got completely soaked," he said..

Police maintained text contact throughout the evening giving updates as search parties trekked towards him.

"Every now and then when they told me progress was being made it did help," he said.

When he finally heard searchers' whistles they could not hear him.

"They did a full circle around me trying to find me. I could hear their whistles everywhere but due to where I was my voice could only get projected down into the valley, so up above where they were they couldn't hear me."

Eventually the police directed one team below to him and another team was sent above to pull him off the bluff to safety.

With a walking stick for support Mr Witham then trekked nearly five hours enduring sharp pain before reaching the search base at 2am.

He was taken to hospital for treatment where two screws were inserted into his fractured bones.

Mr Whitham, who was on a four- month road trip around New Zealand, said it was the second time he had broken a bone in the mountains these holidays.

He needed surgery when he broke his clavicle in a snowboarding accident in Queenstown.

"Mum's not too happy about it," he said.

He returns to Australia on Friday.