{"id":84201,"date":"2025-05-08T09:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T09:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/84201\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T09:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T09:05:09","slug":"bristol-man-vanishes-after-solo-hike-in-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/84201\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol man vanishes after solo hike in New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eli’s family are flying out to help the search\"EliEli Sweeting (Image: Supplied\/ NZHerald)<\/p>\n

The family of a Bristol man who vanished after a hike in New Zealand are flying across the world to help find him.<\/p>\n

Eli Sweeting was reported as missing on Sunday evening (May 4) after he did not return home from a solo day trip at Mitre Peak in Milford Sound.<\/p>\n

The family of Eli, who moved from Bristol to Port Motueka, are now flying out to assist with search efforts, reports the New Zealand Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, recent poor weather<\/a> in the area has complicated the effort to locate him.<\/p>\n

The search was temporarily suspended today (May 8) due to weather conditions in the region and is planned to resume tomorrow.<\/p>\n

His sister, Serena Sweeting, said the family were due to arrive on Friday to join the search.<\/p>\n

In a post on social media, Serena said: “\u201cThis is an incredibly worrying time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you so so much to everyone out there looking for Eli.<\/p>\n

“I feel so hopeless being so far away but it\u2019s reassuring the effort going in to find him.<\/p>\n

“If anyone spoke to him please reach out to the police with information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local police said that search teams were mindful of the difficult terrain and weather warnings.<\/p>\n

Detective Tracy Ward said a large number of resources had been working through arduous terrain, supported by helicopter crews.<\/p>\n

Detective Ward said: \u201cThere is also a huge amount of local support being provided by tourism operator Real NZ at Milford Sound.<\/p>\n

“Roughly 60 search and rescue volunteers, 10 police staff and numerous helicopter and tourism staff are working hard to find the missing man.<\/p>\n

\u201dThe search area is relatively contained but incredibly rugged and difficult to navigate once off the track.<\/p>\n

“At times, the search teams are only able to progress 250 metres in an hour.<\/p>\n

“While no items of interest have been positively linked to the missing man, a number of clues are being followed up on, and we remain hopeful that there will be a positive outcome.<\/p>\n

“The man we are looking for is experienced in the outdoors, and we believe he has suitable clothing and provisions, which can make all the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The search is being supported by Land Search and Rescue teams from Fiordland, Catlins, Tokonui, Clutha, and Southland, Southern Lakes Helicopters, Heli-Otago, Southland Amateur Radio Emergency Communications, specialised Search and Rescue dogs from both Wakatipu and Dunedin, and Wakatipu Alpine Cliff Rescue teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eli’s family are flying out to help the searchEli Sweeting (Image: Supplied\/ NZHerald) The family of a Bristol…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,378,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-84201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-in-the-news","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114471418371280610","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}