Monday morning's weather took a turn for the worse, which may have contributed to what happened on the road 30 miles out of Punakaiki as we made our way home to Hanmer.
Following Pete and Morag, Duncan was alarmed to see an oncoming car weaving and swerving; relief that it had missed us quickly turned to panic when, in the rear-view mirror, he saw that it had driven off the road and into the ditch, and completely disappeared.
We about-turned immediately, to find that the car had landed upside-down at the bottom of a 20' deep ditch with a strong stream running through it. Dunc, Pete and Unnamed Local Chap slithered down onto the top of the inverted car and, to cut a long and very grisly story short, rescued from the flooded wreckage a small, sodden, deeply-in-shock boy (whom they left with me, wrapped up on my lap to try to warm and calm him for the half-hour til the ambulance arrived) and sadly unearthed the bodies of the two other passengers, the mother and teenaged brother, both of whom had drowned.
Ghastly, ghastly, ghastly.
Then of course, no sooner than the boys had scrambled out, scratched, bleeding and smelly from being thigh-deep in the stream, than the police wanted formal statements from us about what we'd seen and done (so we've all drunk more Greymouth police station tea than we'd like), and to take Duncan back to the crash site to look at the skid marks (with perfect timing, the crash team chose just the moment of our arrival to have its crane hoist the car out of the culvert...)
Little doubt that Dunc, Pete and U.L.C. saved the boy's life and are unsung heroes. The only bright spot in the tale is that the press is reporting this morning that the boy, having spent the night in hospital, is already over his physical injuries and his daddy (who works in the far south of the island) is coming home to him right now.
Following Pete and Morag, Duncan was alarmed to see an oncoming car weaving and swerving; relief that it had missed us quickly turned to panic when, in the rear-view mirror, he saw that it had driven off the road and into the ditch, and completely disappeared.
We about-turned immediately, to find that the car had landed upside-down at the bottom of a 20' deep ditch with a strong stream running through it. Dunc, Pete and Unnamed Local Chap slithered down onto the top of the inverted car and, to cut a long and very grisly story short, rescued from the flooded wreckage a small, sodden, deeply-in-shock boy (whom they left with me, wrapped up on my lap to try to warm and calm him for the half-hour til the ambulance arrived) and sadly unearthed the bodies of the two other passengers, the mother and teenaged brother, both of whom had drowned.
Ghastly, ghastly, ghastly.
Then of course, no sooner than the boys had scrambled out, scratched, bleeding and smelly from being thigh-deep in the stream, than the police wanted formal statements from us about what we'd seen and done (so we've all drunk more Greymouth police station tea than we'd like), and to take Duncan back to the crash site to look at the skid marks (with perfect timing, the crash team chose just the moment of our arrival to have its crane hoist the car out of the culvert...)
Little doubt that Dunc, Pete and U.L.C. saved the boy's life and are unsung heroes. The only bright spot in the tale is that the press is reporting this morning that the boy, having spent the night in hospital, is already over his physical injuries and his daddy (who works in the far south of the island) is coming home to him right now.
As you'd expect, we're all still a bit shell-shocked. To cheer us all up, a few views from the trip home
and the next line of the countdown ...
and Kiwiana baubles from our (rather drunken!) Hanmer tree
and the next line of the countdown ...
"On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Four possums playing.
Three cows a-cuddling,
Two pavs a-cooking,
Three cows a-cuddling,
Two pavs a-cooking,
And a kiwi in a fern tree"
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