Battered tramper's 8-day ordeal

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Matthew Briggs, of Middlemarch, 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.

• Dog tired and pie-eyed

Knowing no-one would find him, wracked with pain, he hobbled with his dog - called Little Dog - through rugged alpine terrain for more than a week to the nearest hut.

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

Officer in charge of West Coast search and rescue Constable Sean Judd, of Greymouth, called Mr Briggs "a tough character".

"He realised his best chance was to keep walking.

"Where he was eventually located and where his van was found was miles away.

"If we had mounted a search from his van it would have been months before we found him."

An experienced tramper and possum hunter, Mr Briggs (33) was born in Yorkshire and has a degree in environmental management.

He moved to New Zealand in 2002, became a New Zealand citizen in Balclutha in May 2007, and has owned the Middlemarch Store since September 2007.

He had told his staff he would return to work on Monday, March 23, and only to start worrying 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 at the Hopkins River, near Lake Ohau.

Huts in the Landsborough River area across the Main Divide were checked by helicopter and some of Mr Briggs' movements were tracked through his entries in backcountry hut visitor books.

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

Store manager Dennis Bowers, who spoke briefly to Mr Briggs after he arrived at hospital, said his boss had lost his locater beacon in the fall.

He was doing "much better now" but was "pretty embarrassed" about what had happened. He was coherent but had been pretty knocked about and would take some time to recover.

Mr Bowers said Mr Briggs would often go into the outdoors - up to twice a week. He also enjoyed running.

Mr Briggs met the hunters when he arrived at the Horace Walker Hut, south of the Copland Valley, about 7am on Monday.

The hunters then walked to the nearest home, south of Fox Glacier, to raise the alarm.

The Solid Energy Rescue Helicopter, unable to fly in on Monday night because of low cloud, rescued Mr Briggs yesterday morning.

He later underwent surgery on his ankle in hospital in Greymouth.

His father, David Briggs, told the ODT from Richmond, in Yorkshire, last night that he had spoken to his son, briefly, after surgery.

"He said he was glad to be alive."

He and wife Ann were grateful to store staff for raising the alarm and for the help from the hunters.

Const Judd said Mr Briggs had "some excellent survival skills and a lot of equipment, but let himself down by not providing sufficient details of his intentions".