Sat, Feb 11 2012

Greek hiker lost in New Zealand saved by text message back home

Mon, Feb 08 2010 12:08 CET

byNick Iliev

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Greek hiker lost in New Zealand saved by text message back home

A Greek tourist who became separated from his friend and found himself lost on the Ruapehu mountain in New Zealand was saved by an unprecedented rescue operation, Reuters reported on February 8 2010.

The man, who was reportedly ill-equipped for a prolonged stay on the mountain, was rescued after he sent a distress text message to his family in Greece. They then contacted the Greek rescue service who, in turn, called colleagues in New Zealand.

Reportedly, Marios Symeonidis was on Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand’s largest and most popular skiing and snowboarding resort. He became separated from his companion while taking photographs.

Symeonidis was not equipped for an overnight stay, lacked sufficient provisions and was only wearing light clothing.

Following the distress signal received from Greece, four New Zealand mountain rescue teams were dispatched to find Symeonidis. He apparently spent the night high on the mountain and was then helped in the morning by another tourist who drove him to the rescue teams, according to reports.

"He ate all of one of the guy's chocolate bars," rescue pilot Henry de Waal told the Waikato Times newspaper. "He was actually lucky that it was quite a warm night."

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