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A 71-year-old man survived 24 hours lying injured in a riverbed after falling about 20m while tramping in rugged bush on the Coromandel Peninsula.
The Whitianga man was winched from Broken Hills in Puketui Valley, 19km from Tairua, at 3pm yesterday with back injuries and cuts.
He was also suffering from hypothermia.
The man disappeared about 3pm on Sunday, during a tramp with two other people through the old mining area. He had decided not to explore an historic underground mine system known as Collins Drive, and left his companions to return to the carpark.
Senior Constable Bruce Bogun, Waikato police search and rescue co-ordinator, said the man had recently undergone a neck operation and found movement difficult.
It was not known last night how the man fell. The alarm was raised at 7pm on Sunday.
Twenty search and rescue teams, some from Waitomo, searched throughout the night because of the man's age.
Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter winchman Ernie Bryant estimated the man had fallen 10m to 20m to the stream.
"If you saw the hill you would say he's more than a bit keen [on tramping]," Mr Bryant said.
"I would think that people half his age and twice as fit would probably struggle on it."
A paramedic was winched through thick bush canopy to reach the man, Mr Bryant said.
The recovery took about 30 minutes and the rescue helicopter had to stop at Ardmore to refuel before continuing on to Auckland Hospital.
The tramper was semi-conscious when transferred to hospital.
Mr Bogun said the man was lucky to have been found before another night in the bush.
