LandSAR has rescued lost, missing and injured trampers in more than 30,000 operations over nine decades.

“Across the board, it’s always very busy for us, and 90 years later, it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down,” says LandSAR fundraising manager Jon McQueen.

It started with the ‘Sutch Search’ in April 1933, when four trampers went missing for two weeks in the Tararua Range. Up to 200 volunteers, supported by radio communication and aircraft, searched the Waiohine Valley.

The search and subsequent rescue ignited a public debate over responsibility for those lost in the outdoors, as there was no overriding organisation to take control. It led, a year later, to the establishment of LandSAR, a group of unpaid professionals who volunteer their search and rescue skills to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And it’s all free.

Wakatipu volunteer Candice Tovey recalls her first callout in 2012.

“I remember the adrenalin as I got the call, which woke me up from my warm bed,” she says. After grabbing her kit, she raced to the police station then travelled another hour to where the search would begin for a tramper who had gone missing in the Southern Alps.

“It was dark and bitterly cold. I remember the snowflakes landing on my gloves. It almost felt like we were on an Arctic expedition,” Tovey says.

The missing person was found after four hours, sheltering beneath a rock with minimal clothing and scant equipment.

“Returning that person just 12 hours after they were reported missing was truly heartwarming,” she says.

LandSAR’s chief executive, Carl McOnie, says the primary objective is to provide search and rescue everywhere, for everyone.

“Everyone in New Zealand should be able to participate safely in land-based outdoor activities.”

From 2021 to 2022, LandSAR volunteers responded to 373 requests for help, up 18 per cent from the previous year. This year, call-outs have already surpassed that number.

LandSAR by numbers

13,339,080 hours donated to LandSAR since 1933

100,345 hours donated in the past year

452 people rescued over the last 12 months

3500 volunteer members