Fiordland is one of the most picturesque places in the country, but it is also one of the most unpredictable for weather changing rapidly.
Since 1936, there have been dozens of aircraft go down in the area. Some still remain lost to nature in the dense bush of the national park or high in the mountain peaks.
123RF The bush in Fiordland National Park does not give up its secrets easily. “You don’t get many second chances in Fiordland,” Burnby said. Burnby, who has been involved in many searches during the years, recalls how he found another wreckage by chance.
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The Reeve family make their way to the Hopkins Valley. Talking to witnesses and friends of the pilot, Brian Chadwick, they believe they re in the right spot. He would have known roughly whereabouts he was and properly entered the cloud thinking he was high enough to get through the pass and he s been off to one side or the other. When you look at the area up there, it s an area where nobody would go, no-one would just stumble across it. Reeve said the discovery of a woman s boot in the remote location has led them to believe the plane was about 8000 feet up, deep in the permanent snow.