A desperate Czech woman made signs in the snow during a month trapped alone in a hut along the Routeburn Track.

A desperate Czech woman used fire ashes to make a help sign in the snow and fashioned snow shoes from sticks during a month trapped alone in a remote Fiordland hut after her partner fell to his death.

She was rescued on Wednesday.

"Nobody can prepare you for this," she later told police of her ordeal.

IAIN MCGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ Lake McKenzie Hut and surrounding area on the Routeburn track near Queenstown where a woman was living for weeks after her partner died.

The woman spent three nights exposed to extreme weather before she reached the Lake McKenzie camp on the Routeburn Track, where she broke into a warden's hut through a window and waited for help.

It was slow in coming. Nobody knew where the couple were and it was only after relatives in Europe raised concerns on social media that New Zealand police were alerted through the Czech consulate, the pair's car tracked to Glenorchy, near Queenstown, and the woman rescued.

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IAIN MCGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ The woman decided to stay put because of the injuries and the snow.

She is staying with New Zealand honorary consul of the Czech Republic Vladka Kennett in Glenorchy. Kennett acted as translator when the woman spoke to police and recounted her incredible survival tale.

The couple arrived in New Zealand on February 29 with a working holiday visa. They had a potential job organised on a farm near Dunedin. They set out on the Routeburn on July 26, despite being warned off by Department of Conservation (DOC) staff.

According to Kennett, they had no tent or locator beacon and told no-one of their plans. They spent one freezing night outside and the next day, disoriented in heavy fog and strong winds and with snow falling, slipped five to seven metres down a steep slope. The man fell further and became trapped between branches and rocks. The woman was able to reach him but could not free him. She heard his last gasps of breath before he died.

IAIN MCGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ The woman had stuck in the hut after her partner fell to his death.

"She tried everything she could but she was totally exhausted," Kennett said.

"It was impossible [to free him]."

Unable to move her partner, the woman spent two more nights sleeping above the tree line against a "vertical rock", whatever possessions she had stuffed into her sleeping bag for warmth, Kennett said. Over the next two days she tried but failed in foggy, snowy conditions to reach the campsite she could make out in the distance.

SUPPLIED The DOC warden's hut on the left, alongside the trampers' accommodation at Lake Mackenzie, on the Routeburn Track.

On the fourth day the woman reached the camp, Kennett said, and broke into a warden's hut through a window to find food, gas and firewood. There was a radio too, but the English operating instructions were indecipherable to her. Her numbed fingers had turned white and her feet swelled drastically when she removed her boots. It was days before she could put them on again.

After she recovered, the woman fashioned snow shoes from sticks but was unable to walk out through the deep snow.

"She made several attempts to get out but was always stopped by her physical and mental condition," Kennett said.

ULTIMATE HIKES Lake Harris on the Routeburn Track between Falls Hut and Lake Mackenzie Hut on August 4. There had been heavy snow in the area since July 24 - the day Czech trampers Pavlina Pizova and Ondrej Petr set out.

"She was devastated by the loss of her partner."

There were enough ashes from a fire for the woman to write an "H" for help in the snow in the hope of attracting a rescuer's eye. It was a month before, on Wednesday, they finally arrived. On Sunday, Kennett had noticed social media messages from concerned friends and family of the pair in the Czech Republic. They sent the consul the photos and car registration details that helped searchers track the couple to the Routeburn.

The woman was doing "really well" but wanted to return home as soon as possible, Kennett said. Her family knew she was safe.

SUPPLIED An aerial view of the Lake Mackenzie Hut, pictured bottom right, on the Routeburn Track.

Otago Lakes Central area commander Inspector Olaf Jensen said the woman was "relieved" to see the helicopter crew that picked her up.

She was taken to hospital as a precaution and was understandably upset, but otherwise in good health, he said.

"It very unusual for someone to be missing in the New Zealand bush for such a long period without it being reported."

SUPPLIED The warden's hut at Lake Mackenzie on the Routeburn Track.

A search and rescue helicopter crew was unable to recover the man's body last night. Police hoped to retrieve it this morning, weather permitting.

Jensen said the man's death was not considered suspicious and would be investigated by the coroner.

DOC Te Anau operations manager Greg Lind said the fact no-one noticed the woman was no surprise.

DAVE NICOLL/FAIRFAX NZ The start of the Routeburn Track in Fiordland National Park.

"It would be only highly-skilled alpine people that should be attempting to use the Routeburn in winter time.

"The fact that nobody was up there is certainly not unusual – if she was waiting for rescue from another party coming through she would have been very lucky."

Lind said there would have been a "reasonable degree" of tinned food and other items left in the hut by the wardens, whose season finished in April.

"There's plenty of bedding, if she managed to get the fire going it would have been a reasonable location to be in."

He said he hoped the incident would serve as a reminder to tramper's to take extra precautions.

"The message is being ignored or overlooked by people and they are getting themselves into a right pickle.

"People are making judgement calls about their own experiences and ability and often they are getting caught out."

WEATHER WARNINGS

MetService issued daily snowfall warnings for the area in the nine days from July 24 – the day the couple set out from Glenorchy. The forecaster has issued four more since.

There was large snowfall about three weeks ago.

Trampers said during the time the woman was trapped, the track was covered in up to one metre of snow either side of the remote Lake Mackenzie hut where the woman was holed up.

DOC had warned trampers of an avalanche risk for those entering the Great Walks track from The Divide. Heavy snow made the Harris Saddle treacherous for those heading in from Glenorchy.

Otago Tramping and Mountaineering Club president Richard Forbes was in the Routeburn on a club trip last weekend.

DOC advised them not to go to Lake Mackenzie Hut because of the snow and avalanche risk. They went to the Falls Hut from the Glenorchy end instead.

"You've got an alpine section [on the way] where it's more exposed."

"If no-one's been in there because of the snow, I can see how it could happen."

'SHE DID THE RIGHT THING'

Barry Walker, also on the club trip, said the snow was a metre deep on the Falls Hutt side of Harris Saddle "and no doubt at the Howden end too".

"She was not likely to get out in her state . . . she did the right thing and stayed put, never expecting no-one would turn up, I expect.

"Their mistake was going beyond the saddle, no doubt, as conditions were severe. [It's] easy to stray off-track as markers [were] buried in places," Walker said.

Dunedin man Stuart Eaton walked part of the Routeburn from August 12 to 14 and said the snow was thick.

His group went from Glenorchy, stayed at Falls Hut, then went back the same way.

"No-one went over the [Harris Saddle] pass that weekend we were up there. There was avalanche danger on the pass so we went no further than Lake Harris."

"I'd say the snow was about a metre in depth at the top of the track."

'DOESN'T MAKE SENSE'

​Otago Tramping and Mountaineering Club spokesman Ian Sime said although the track was officially closed, people tramped the track through winter.

"People can leave food at huts, so there can be stuff there. Water wouldn't be a trouble. You'd be able to thaw [snow]."

Sime had "never" heard of this happening before.

"It's unbelievable".​

Had the couple filled in the intentions book, a search would have started weeks ago.

ONE OF THE 'GREAT WALKS'

​The track follows the Routeburn Gorge, along the Routeburn River, and usually takes trampers three days to complete. There is no cellphone coverage.

It is one of New Zealand's Great Walks and is popular in summer especially, with huts and campsites being booked out months in advance.

Temperatures at MetService's closest station, Milford Airport, ranged from -3 degrees Celsius to 15C in the last 30 days, but a forecaster said temperatures on the Routeburn track would be cooler.

In a statement, the Mountain Safety Council said even the most experienced trampers had accidents.

"Unfortunately, a moment's complacency can sometimes have fatal consequences.

"We'd like to remind all trampers, particularly those intending to be out for significant time periods of time, that it's important to make sure they have left an intentions form."

SECOND FATALITY ON THE ROUTEBURN

In March 2008, Israeli tourist Liat Okin, 35, died after leaving the main Routeburn Track.

She was found six weeks after she went missing on a little-known emergency avalanche route marked only by hard-to-see plastic tags tied to trees.

Photos she had taken showed she had been there and indicated "she was unconcerned about her position and unlikely to have considered herself lost".

However, she never made it beyond a rocky gully in the Roaring Creek area where, after constructing a bivouac to shelter for the night, she fell on slippery boulders, breaking her neck.

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