Catlins LandSAR has moved into a new home. Hamish MacLean talks to committed member Lianne Latta, who knows what it feels like to be lost in the bush.
''They had chocolate.''
That's one of Lianne Latta's many vivid memories of being found by a Catlins Land Search and Rescue crew when she went missing in the Fleming River area at Christmas on the Catlins coast in 1985.
Ms Latta, then 13, and her sister Keri (9) were missing for 28 hours.
''When I heard them call, that's when I started to get emotional, I just said to her 'We're out of here; let's go'.''
The two girls had spent the night sleeping under ferns in pouring rain, wearing only shorts and T-shirts.
They were dehydrated and cold when rescuers came across them.
She remembers hot soup in the shower, a TV One helicopter when she was trying to sleep, and the relief of not feeling like she was the only one to look after her sister.
''Driving down the road in a vehicle and watching a white truck come towards us, it was my school principal and my dad, and looking at him crying his eyes out, I thought, 'That's good, I'm not going to be in trouble: he missed me'.''
Ms Latta has been a committed member of Catlins LandSAR since 2003. She knows what it's like to be lost.
Catlins LandSAR has a new permanent home after the Clutha District Council adopted the Owaka Reserve Management Plan this winter.
When paired with its sister operation from Tokanui, the Catlins LandSAR crew is 120 members strong.
Chairman Fraser Morris has been there since its inception.
Finding the two girls is one of his most vivid memories as a member of the search and rescue crew.
He remembered the search, like many others, being ''hard on the head''.
''Searching for a day and a-half and we have no idea where they are, what the hell are we going to do? What are we going to do next?'' he said.
Mr Morris became involved in search and rescue in 1978 and he was involved with the first group of Catlins-based search and rescue when it started in 1981.
Much had changed since those days, he said.
''Search techniques - we didn't have a good handle on those.
''Communication was just about non-existent back then, we had no GPS, radios were bloody great big things and they didn't work most of the time. We have techniques now that help you search.
''Everything keeps changing. It's just about getting that bit more clever, better use of resources.''
Catlins LandSAR had resources now that would be the envy of many crews, he said.
Five months ago, they acquired a trailer equipped with satellite and internet capabilities, radios, a generator and other gear crucial for some searches.
The trailer and generator cost $35,000 and the trailer contains about $40,000 worth of equipment.
The Owaka Reserve Management Plan has granted the outfit the use of the old Owaka Rugby Club change rooms, which now house the crew's incident management and management support teams.
A standalone structure was approved in the plan that will house a radio room, family room, interview room and provide storage for the LandSAR trailer.
The $64,000 12m by 7.2m building would begin construction in October and be opened by Christmas, Mr Morris said.
The crews in the field were highly trained and some of the best trackers in the region, he said. Catlins LandSAR trains every month.
A twice-yearly exercise held last month was to ensure the radio, incident management and management support teams were up to the same level.
''Otherwise, you're just wasting resources,'' he said.
And though Mr Morris said the sociable nature of the Catlins crew was one of its strengths, it was serious business when four teams took to the Catlins River area looking for a lost father and son as an exercise.
''It's like playing chess - you're trying to second guess where they've gone, what they've done,'' Mr Morris said.
He said a search was complex and the real thing was an emergency situation.
''If we get it wrong somebody could die,'' he said.
It took a while for Ms Latta to return to the Fleming River area. She said she was happiest in the field searching when somebody was missing.
''When I know something's wrong - somebody needs to be found - I know it's important to just drop everything and go,'' she said.
''And when I can't go, I get quite stressed about it.''
It has become a family affair. Her partner Rob and son Clayton joined her last weekend, and they are all members of Catlins LandSAR.
''Search and rescue is where my heart is now,'' she said.
