I was tramping the Te Araroa Trail in New Zealand. I had hiked in 2 days from the Levin road end and the forecast was rain but clearing to sun. I left Nichol’s Hut that Tuesday morning aiming to get over Junction Knob and to Mid Waiohine Hut, the weather was dense mist and light winds. When i was 2 hours in and at Mt. Crawford on a bit of a knife ridge (1462m) the wind started blowing strong enough that i couldn’t stay upright, then it started to snow. I made the decision to turn back to Nichol’s Hut to wait out the weather.

 I had another 2 nights at the hut waiting for the weather to get better, then on Thursday, i attempted to make it to a Dracophyllum Hut, The wind picked up again and i realized i was stuck and running out of food and didn’t know how long the weather would last for. I set of the beacon at 10am Thursday morning and waited. That day it dropped below freezing and the mist was thick and wind blowing about 100km/hr. At 9:30am on the Friday, a SAR helicopter made it in and picked me up before the weather turned again and brought me safely back home. I had very mild Hypothermia but was otherwise fine.