Had it pierced one of the arteries it could have killed him.
"I do feel pretty lucky to be alive," he said.
Despite being in pain, the man said he was initially unaware he had the remnants of a branch in his neck.
"I just got back up, dusted myself off and got the ball.
"But on the way up I noticed that my collar bone and neck were feeling a bit dodgy so I had a feel around and felt a bit of wood sticking out of the old neck," he said.
"It had snapped off flush with my neck and went in about two inches."
Some of his friends were freaking out, telling him to stay awake as they feared he could die.
The piece of branch was removed in hospital.
"I thought that was a bit ridiculous," he said. "Initially, I was just going to pull it out myself and carry on but I realised that probably wasn't such a good idea because it was putting a bit of pressure on certain things in my neck and I was feeling kind of faint."
Kawau Volunteer Rural Fire Force chief Martin Duytshoff, who arrived on the scene first, said he was instantly concerned for the holidaymaker.
"I suspected it might be close to the carotid artery, the main artery that runs up through the neck, and therefore any movement could pose a high risk of compromising that artery," Duytshoff said.
Auckland's Westpac Rescue Helicopter was sent to the island and the man was flown to Auckland City Hospital.
"They took an x-ray just to make sure that it wasn't penetrating my jugular or esophagus and that came up all good," the injured man said.
"They injected me with local anaesthetic around the wound and then pulled it out and scrubbed [the wound]."
The man has cheated death once before. As a child his throat was cut when he rode his BMX into an electric fence wire.
He had kept part of the wire as a memento and would also hang on to the 5cm piece of wood.
The man was camping last week, determined the injury wouldn't ruin his summer.