QUEENSTOWN, New Zealand (Reuters) — Pavlina Pizova, a Czech traveller who was rescued by New Zealand police on Thursday (August 25) after having spent close to a month alone in a warden’s hut in the mountains of the country’s South Island after her male partner Ondrej Petr died from a fall, spoke to media on Friday (August 26) of her ordeal.
“As you can imagine, the last month was very harrowing for me and my and my partner’s families,” Pizova said at a news conference in Queenstown.
The pair began their journey to hike the 32 km (20 miles) Routeburn Track, one of Fiordland National Park’s Great Walks, on July 26.
The fatal fall happened two days later on July 28 after which Pizova has to spend some nights in the open before finding her way to a warden’s hut on July 31.
“When my partner fell and died, after his death it took my, under two nights in the open before I reached the safety of the hut. The recent heavy snows meant I was walking through deep snow and because all the track marks were covered, I have to find my own way,” Pizova said.
The woman and her companion were well-equipped for their journey and she was able to make use of the resources in the warden’s hut such as food, firewood and gas to keep herself warm, the police said.
“I would like to thank New Zealand LSAR (Land Search and Rescue) and local police and DOC (Department of Conservation) for their effort, effort to brought me to safe. It’s very important. Especially, I would like to thank Vlladka and Kennet for their help and assistance on the personnel and basic and helping our families to get through all this, they are heroes for me,” Pizova added
The Czech consulate raised the alarm with New Zealand authorities after the two travellers had not been heard from in sometime, police then launched a search after finding the couple’s car abandoned.
“Yeah, Ondrej just slipped and or they both slipped and fell. He got stuck between rock and some branches. Pavlina slipped behind him, and was unable to help him out and, yeah, that was it,” said Vlladka Kennet, the Czech Republic Consul.
“Well, she made few attempts as she said in her statement to walk out of the hut but because of the situation she was in, her physical conditions and the snow, mainly because she didn’t know what was at the end of the track. She always return back, she only made it couple of hundred metres and would turn back, she wasn’t confident to carry on but she didn’t give up trying, she tried everything I believe she could given the conditions,” Kennet added.
Police have recovered a body from the area but it is yet to be positively identified as Ondrej Petr.
According to police the pair had been in New Zealand since January on a working holiday.