Czech tourist describes friend’s death and her struggle to survive

HEARING her friend’s final breath was just the start of an ordeal for Pavlina Pizova, who survived a month in the freezing wilderness.

Pavlina Pizova has been rescued after a month hiding in a hut.

HEARING her fatally injured friend’s final gasp for air was only the start of Pavlina Pizova’s harrowing ordeal.

The Czech tourist and her compatriot Ondrej Petr had been tramping in difficult conditions along the Routeburn Track, a mountainous hiking trail on New Zealand’s South Island, when tragedy struck.

After the pair spent a few freezing days and nights on the 32km track, disoriented by thick fog and with heavy snow falling, Mr Petr, 27, slipped about five to seven metres down a steep, icy slope.

He continued to fall and became trapped in rocks and branches. Ms Pizova scrambled down to reach her friend, but despite her desperate efforts could not free him.

While experienced trampers and fairly well-equipped for their trek on Routeburn Track, the pair didn’t have personal locator beacons with them and had not told anyone about their hiking plans.

So when Ms Petr took his last breaths and succumbed to his injuries, Ms Pizova became alone and stranded in the snowy wilderness.

Pavlina Pizova and Ondrej Petr. Picture: NZ Police

She spent the night next to Mr Petr’s lifeless body and another two nights outdoors in the freezing conditions, unable to return to the hiking route as thick snow had obscured the track.

Eventually, she stumbled upon a remote warden’s hut near Lake Mackenzie, where she was rescued on Wednesday after four weeks.

“After his death it took three nights in the open before I reached the safety of the hut,” Ms Pizova said in her first public statement on Friday.

“I was walking through waist deep snow and because of that the track lines were covered. My feet were frozen.”

Ms Pizova broke her way into the locked hut and survived on a meagre supplies of food, firewood and gas left behind by Department of Conservation (DoC) workers.

Czech tourist Pavlina Pizova survived a month in this remote hut on New Zealand’s South Island. Picture: New Zealand Central District Police

The Lake Mackenzie Hut on the remote Routeburn Track.

She fashioned makeshift shoes from sticks and, unable to decipher the English instructions to work the hut radio, used ash to write the letter “H” in the snow in the hope of attracting help.

No other trampers passed through the area because Routeburn Track has been officially closed for winter.

Reading in English a prepared statement at a police press conference on Friday, in which she revealed some of the details of her mysterious survival, a stoic Ms Pizova said she made a few attempts to seek help outside the hut.

But because of the extreme weather conditions and her failing health — she has since been treated for frostbite and possible hypothermia — Ms Pizova decided to “stay in a safe place”.

Inside the remote hut. Picture: New Zealand Central District Police

She spent the four long weeks trying to stay warm and exercising her freezing feet, hands and legs.

Still grief-stricken by what she described as the “tragic accident” that claimed her friend’s life, Ms Pizova declined to go into much detail about what happened.

But she acknowledged the pair had underestimated the conditions of the track and not bringing with them a beacon or notifying people of their hiking intentions had been mistakes.

The tourist broke down towards the end of her statement as she thanked police and rescuers who found her inside the humble hut on Wednesday, calling them “heroes for me”.

Mr Petr’s body was recovered by rescue crews on Thursday and has been referred to the Coroner.

Czech tourist Pavlina Pizova. Picture: New Zealand Herald/James Allan

Ms Pizova was supported during her public appearance by Vladka Kennett, Consul for the Czech Republic, who said the woman’s ordeal was unbelievable.

“I don’t understand it myself. I think she is a very strong woman. She just tried everything to survive. Tried to warm her feet up, keep moving her feet and hands, put everything she could find on her feet and body,” Ms Kennett said.

“It’s too difficult to describe emotions like that. She went up to the public hut and made a fire there. She made a few attempts as she said to walk out of the hut but because of the situation she was in, her physical conditions and the snow, she always went back.

“She only made it a few hundred metres and went back.

Czech national Ondrej Petr died after a fall while trekking along the Routeburn Track in New Zealand.

“As you can imagine if you’re stuck somewhere for a month you would be very relieved, quite happy [to be rescued].”

Ms Pizova and Mr Petr had been in New Zealand since January on a working holiday, two of the thousands of Czechs who travel to the country each year, drawn in particular by the rugged terrain of the Queenstown area.

The pair had set off on July 26 for Routeburn Track, a trek between the Mt Aspiring and Fiordland National Parks that usually takes three days.

Authorities didn’t know the couple were in trouble until a Facebook post from their friend sparked the rescue mission, the New Zealand Herald reported.

“Hey, I’m wondering if anyone has any news,” their friend posted in Czech on Facebook.

A recovery team search for the body of Ondrej Petr. Picture: New Zealand Central District Police

“I’m trying to connect with Ondra and Peter Pavlin Pížová who are travelling around the South Island, last I heard they were going to a farm to Dunedin, but they have been silent for more than a month. They are driving a Toyota Estima 2000 and are both climbers. So if you have seen, let me know.”

Queenstown-based consul Ms Kennett contacted police on Wednesday morning after the pair had been on the track for 29 days.

She was contacted on Facebook by an acquaintance who was in contact with Mr Petr’s worried mother, Ms Kennett told NZME.

“The mother of the victim said she had no contact for a month. They were meant to be in Queenstown before heading down to Dunedin for farm work,” she said.

A picture from Pavlina Pizova’s Facebook page taken in New Zealand.

A helicopter search and rescue team found Ms Pizova at the hut on Wednesday afternoon.

She was “ecstatic” and relieved to be rescued, in good physical health, but was clearly traumatised by her ordeal.

“Nobody can prepare you for this,” she told police.

Ms Pizova was expected to return home as soon as she could.

Police and DoC yesterday praised her for not trying to get out on her own.

“Her last decision was a very good decision — just to hunker down and wait for somebody to come along,” DoC Wakatipu operations manager Geoff Owen said.

Ms Pizova didn’t return to Ms Petr’s body after she left him where he had died. She is now working to return him home to the Czech Republic.