'Unprepared' tramper rescued in Otago

A 25-year-old Austrian man has been rescued from the Silver Peaks, 24km north-west of Dunedin, after entering the bush late yesterday afternoon woefully unprepared.

The man began his tramp at 3pm wearing jeans, a polar fleece and a poncho and carrying a can of baked beans.

Senior Sergeant Bruce Ross of Dunedin police said the man was reported missing when night fell and he had not emerged.

"It was dark, he couldn't see where he was going. He probably couldn't see his nose."

Search and Rescue were called and assisted police in hunting for the man, locating him at 12.30am.

Mr Ross said the man was fine, but called for people to stop risking their lives with idiotic behaviour.

"It is unfair when people do ridiculous things like go into sub-alpine, freezing conditions completely unprepared and 35 people are put out having to go and look for them.

"These (searchers) are volunteers and if it wasn't for them these sorts of searches wouldn't occur.

"If they didn't exist there would be a lot more fatalities, like this guy could have been."

- NZPA