Friends of hiker Hadi Nazari who was found safe after being lost in Kosciuszko national park for almost two weeks, have thanked search crews and the people that found him. The 23-year-old went missing on boxing day while hiking with friends and survived on two muesli bars and foraged berries.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00The atmosphere here at Gee High is completely different to what it was less than 24 hours
00:08ago.
00:09Hardy Nazari, as we know, has been found.
00:12He was found near an area of Blue Lake around Caruthers Saddle, which is 10 kilometres from
00:19here as the crow flies, although that doesn't mean much because the bushland that he has
00:24been walking through is incredibly dense and thick and steep.
00:29He was found yesterday afternoon by hikers in the area.
00:33Then he was given a lift by a helicopter back here to Gee High, which was the base camp
00:39of operations, where between Cancoban and Thredbo, where he was treated by paramedics
00:45and reunited with his friends.
00:49It was absolutely lovely to see and very surprising that he seemed physically relatively okay.
00:55We heard he had some scratches and some grazes and he was a bit dehydrated.
01:00We heard that he basically survived on water these past two weeks, but managed to find
01:05a couple of muesli bars in a hut in the Snowy Mountains at some point in his journey, and
01:09he also foraged for berries.
01:12From a distance, we observed Hardy reunite with his friends.
01:15It was a very emotional moment.
01:18The searchers that were involved in this operation over the past couple of weeks let out a round
01:23of applause a few times, a hip hip hooray.
01:26There was an air of celebration and the atmosphere had really lightened once Hardy had been found.
01:34A few of his friends came running over when they did reunite with Hardy.
01:38One of them told us that he thought it was a miracle that he had been found.
01:42Take a listen to what another friend said.
01:45I'm kind of like in a shock and like full of happiness.
01:50He's a hero, like 14 days without food, like he's doing like perfectly well.
01:57Hardy, as far as we know, remains in Coombe Hospital, which is a two hour drive away from
02:01here at Gee High, and he remains there for the time being undergoing some treatment.
02:09Police say that they want to do a bit of a debriefing session with Hardy over the next
02:14couple of days, but Hardy did reveal to them that he had been walking from morning until
02:19night.
02:20Goodness knows what he has been through these past couple of weeks, surviving in the wilderness
02:25for as long as he has.
02:27He does have family down in Melbourne, so no doubt he's going to try and make it down
02:32back to his hometown as soon as he can once he is well.
02:37But those involved in the search are relieved that he is okay, and yeah, there is a sense
02:43of accomplishment that Hardy has been found after two weeks of searching.