Wanaka LandSAR volunteer Phillip Melchior knows how it feels to be lost in the dark, wondering if rescuers would find him.

He was about nine years old and had his 11-year-old sister Liz and her friend for company. 

They were sitting on a hill above Wilton Bush - now called the Otari Nature Reserve - and could see the flashing lights of police cars in the distance.

They had gone to visit some farm horses. When it started to get dark, Melchior wanted to go home but the girls delayed. When they finally decided to leave, they could not find the bush track.

"Eventually they found us and there was a story in the Evening Post, the headline was "Babes Lost in Wood", which was a searing embarrassment, particularly to my sister," Melchior recalls.

The 66-year-old retired journalist has now written a book full of lost and found stories.

Mountain Rescue is due for release on bookshops on Saturday and is a fundraiser for Wanaka's voluntary search and rescue organisation.

"I didn't know if I was capable of writing a book. All my training as a journalist all those years ago was to keep it short. Two thousand words was a bit of a monster. Sixty thousand was daunting," he said in a recent interview.

To his pleasure, the stories flowed quickly and he comfortably beat his January deadline.

When Penguin Random House first proposed the book, the former National LandSAR chairman was about to start four months chemotherapy to treat the rare blood disorder, amyloidosis.

"This was going to be a very good way of stopping from sitting round feeling like shit and feeling sorry for myself."  

The disease causes natural protein production to "go bananas" and the build up of protein lodged in Melchior's heart  - "it felt a bit like wrapping my heart up in gladwrap".

He sought urgent treatment in Auckland after struggling through a climbing trip in Switzerland in 2012. 

He was diagnosed in July of that year, told there was very little to be done and given a six to nine month life sentence.

"That concentrated the mind, pretty much." 

Melchior did research while being treated and started writing last June, when he felt better.

The first chapter was done in three days and by August he had pretty much finished.

He filled in gaps later and handed it to the publisher in December.

One of the best things he did early on was to plan the stories with his friend, former Wanaka Alpine Cliff Rescue Team leader Gary Dickson.

Dickson has guided Melchior up Aoraki-Mt Cook and was with him when his Switzerland trip turned to custard.

The men drew up a list of 18 problematic rescues and Melchior later whittled it to 11.

"A few others were very good stories but by the time I had done 11 that was it. I had reached my word limit."

The first chapter tells the classic tale of Ruth Adams, an accomplished climber and daughter of New Zealand baking identity Ernest Adams. 

She was seriously injured in a fall on La Perouse in the Aoraki-Mt Cook region. Her gruelling rescue took seven days and was masterminded by a famously tough man of few words, Mick Bowie. The team included a young Edmund Hillary. 

The final chapter was reserved for Canadian Ian Larratt, snowblinded in foul weather on the Bonar Glacier in 2012.

Although extremely well equipped with technology and gear, he had not filed intentions in the traditional manner so locals did not know he was on Mt Aspiring.

Larratt's computer-savvy father was tracking his moves overseas and helped save his life.

Melchior says the two stories show the extremes of what could be achieved with and without technology.

Had Adams been injured today she might have been in hospital within hours.

Had Larratt not taken technology, Melchior considers it highly likely he would have died before anyone realised he was in trouble.

Writing about search and rescues is a reporter's bread and butter, but they are not often allowed behind the scenes.

As an insider and a friend of many volunteers, Melchior has gleaned some previously unreported details, such as the conflict between Wanaka and Invercargill rescue teams during the 2005 rescue of Wanaka-based Australian Lisa Auer and Jonathon Baird, of Scotland, from Mt Tutuko in Fiordland.

The side story of how Wanaka's volunteers muscled in on the Invercargill team's neck of the woods went under the radar.

"Whether they meant it or not, it was very much a case of 'move over boys, the A team is here'. They weren't deliberately trying to antogonise anyone; they were just wholly focused on trying to rescue their friends on the mountain. But it was an attitude that rankled with the locals, including the police," Melchior wrote of the Wanaka rescuers.

Melchior says the best rescue stories depend on the quality of the journalist and the degree to which volunteers - who are not always diplomatic - are prepared to be open.

"Our ethos in Wanaka has certainly, since I arrived anyway, been openness. There are things you can't be open about. You can't go into names and the people until it's finished. But you can tell people what is going on.  I think, by and large, we've always been very happy with the coverage we have got. But having said that, we're also very willing to share what's reasonable to share. Sometimes in the SAR community, not in Wanaka but more widely, [it is thought that] if you tell people what you have done, you are blowing your own trumpet. But the other side of that is we are a voluntary organisation that exists entirely on donations. If people don't know what you do, you can't expect them to put their hands in their pockets and help you."

This lesson was reinforced recently when Wanaka LandSAR built its new $400,000 headquarters.

"All sorts of people in the community gave us a huge amount of help. There was one man who did stuff for us that was probably worth in excess of $20,000, and I said to him, "We are grateful but why? You are not involved in search and rescue."  He said: "It was the TV programme [TV One's 2012 reality series, High Country Rescue]. We all thought we knew what you did but when we saw that, we realised we didn't know the half of it"."

Melchior says writing the book was a privilege and he is grateful for people's willingness to talk about their experiences and recovery.

His first principle was not to point fingers and find fault but just tell the story fairly and accurately.

Melchior has now outlived his life sentence and is in remission. Like the alpine survivors, he is adding more chapters to his life.

"I have an aspirational mountain still in me. We will see if I will be up to it. It will be something relatively small and gentle. The two obvious ones at the moment are Sefton or Elie de Beaumont. We will see. It is up to Gary [Dickson]. Gary will say yes, you are up to this."

 " . . . I've had a hell of a good life. While I have no wish for it to end, if it did I wouldn't be left with all sorts of regrets about the things I hadn't done. You can always add more things to your bucket list. I was extraordinarily fortunate that I was able to retire relatively young and then have a great 10 years with the search and rescue thing."

About Melchior

Passionate tramper, mountaineer and search and rescue volunteer.

Started journalism career at the Wairoa Star in the Northern Hawkes Bay in 1969.

Finished journalism career as global managing director for Reuters Media in London.

Has served as LandSAR New Zealand chairman.

Is on boards of New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute and Antarctica New Zealand.

Moved with wife Barbara to Wanaka in 2001.

Involved with Wanaka LandSAR since 2004.

Now divides time between Auckland and Wanaka.

Read more: 'This is the way that I want to die'

FAST FACTS:

Mountain Rescue by Phillip Melchior

Available: Wanaka Paper Plus from July 31

RRP: $50.00

Book launch: Tuesday, August 11, Edgewater Hotel from 7pm (proceeds to Wanaka LandSAR)

Win a copy: email your name and contact details to mirror@stl.com.nz