Southern man's eight-day ordeal

Matthew Briggs walked with a broken ankle for more than a week. Photo / Supplied

Matthew Briggs is one "tough character". After falling down a bluff and breaking an ankle, wrist and ribs and receiving deep cuts to his back he survived eight days in remote South Westland.

Knowing no-one would find him, he hobbled - with his pet Little Dog - through rugged alpine country for more than a week to the nearest hut.

Two hunters then walked for 13 hours on Monday to raise the alarm.

The officer in charge of West Coast search and rescue, Constable Sean Judd, called Mr Briggs a tough character.

"At some point, he realised his best chance was to keep walking," Mr Judd said. "Where he was eventually located and where his van was found was miles away. If we had mounted a search from his car it would have been months before we found him."

Mr Briggs, 33, is an experienced tramper, a possum hunter and the owner of the Middlemarch store in Central Otago.

He had told staff he would return to work on Monday, March 23, and to start worrying only if he was not back by last Friday. They raised the alarm on Sunday.

On Monday, Constable Paul Mander, of Omarama, found Mr Briggs' van at a road end by the Hopkins River near Lake Ohau. Huts in the area were checked by helicopter and some of Mr Briggs' movements were tracked through his entries in hut visitor books.

Just when Mr Mander was "about to run out of daylight" he received the call to say Mr Briggs had been found.

Middlemarch store manager Dennis Bowers, who was able to speak briefly with Mr Briggs after he arrived at hospital, said his boss had lost his locator beacon in the fall.

Mr Briggs arrived at the hut, south of the Copland Valley, about 7am on Monday. The hunters then walked for 13 hours to the nearest home south of Fox Glacier.

The Solid Energy Rescue Helicopter, unable to fly in on Monday night, rescued Mr Briggs yesterday morning and his ankle was operated on in hospital.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES