{"id":18119,"date":"2026-08-04T05:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T17:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18119"},"modified":"2026-08-04T05:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T17:33:16","slug":"nz-climbers-stranded-in-solomon-islands-rainforest-amid-severe-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18119","title":{"rendered":"NZ climbers stranded in Solomon Islands rainforest amid severe weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two New Zealand men have been stranded in a ravine in Solomon Islands for five days after bad weather prevented them from continuing their descent down a mountain.<\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

Keanu Isaksson, 25, and Luca Zylstra 19, who lives in Perth, had been climbing the country’s largest mountain, Mount Popomanaseu – a remote volcanic mountain on the island of Guadalcanal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Isaksson and Zylstra travelled to Solomon Islands in search of a remote climbing adventure and as preparation for an upcoming trip to the Amazon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Isaksson’s mother Denise Holl told the ABC she had been able to receive intermittent updates through the pair’s emergency response beacon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

She said the friends had summitted with the aid of guides from a local tribe, but those guides could not take the men back down because the descent path crossed into a different tribal area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

She said the men had enough food to last them six more days if they rationed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Rescue attempts unsuccessful<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Holl said she was told torrential rain had made the ground “impossible” to traverse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“The rocks are falling off of the ravine because of the extremely wet nature of the ground,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“And the river has risen and cut them off from any way of retreating across a river out of there.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Mount Popomanaseu is a 2335-metre mountain taller than Australia’s tallest peak, Mount Kosciuszko, which stands at 2228 metres.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Holl said attempts to reach the pair on foot had also been unsuccessful, with one search party forced to turn back because of heavy rain while another had yet to return.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

She said the terrain was also too difficult for the men to be winched out by helicopter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“The helicopter pilot now has been in communication with the boys but there has not been a pocket of good weather for him to be able to land anywhere,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Gary Hubbard at Helicopter Support in Solomon Islands said the two men were trapped about 6000 feet (1828 metres) up the mountain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

He flew 4000 feet up before he was forced to turn back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

He also told the ABC that New Zealand police had been informed and were coordinating a response.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement: “We are providing consular assistance to the families of two New Zealanders in the Solomon Islands.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“For privacy reasons, no further information can be provided.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not respond to the ABC’s request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Holl is hopeful that the men will make it out safely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“Obviously, they’ll be afraid, but I’m fairly certain that when the weather permits they’ll be out there and doing some physical training to keep their physicality up,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“They are well used to being in steep, steep terrain and I’m fairly certain that they’ll be keeping high spirits.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

– ABC News<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two New Zealand men have been stranded in a ravine in Solomon Islands for five days after bad weather prevented them from continuing their descent down a mountain. Keanu Isaksson, 25, and Luca Zylstra 19, who lives in Perth, had been climbing the country’s largest mountain, Mount Popomanaseu – a remote volcanic mountain on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18121,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18119\/revisions\/18121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}