Pāpāmoa man Gregg Bruce says he will be driving with more caution when he returns to Gisborne after Christmas this year, after going missing for two days a year ago. Photo / Kiri Gillespie
When Tauranga man Gregg Shaw went missing for two days while travelling to Gisborne for Christmas, some did not think they would ever see him again. Now, a year later Shaw shares his incredible story of survival for the first time. Kiri Gillespie reports.
It was 5.30am on December 25 when Gregg Shaw left his Pāpāmoa home to spend Christmas with family in Gisborne. He never arrived.
Instead, he spent 56 hours alone, injured and trapped in a ditch from where he could hear police looking for him above, saying they believed he was already dead.
Shaw's crash sparked a major land and air search. It wasn't just some emergency services fearing the worst. So were some of Shaw's family. Meanwhile, he waited for rescue inside his mangled Mazda - out of sight but not out of mind.
About 4pm on December 27, Shaw was found in an old riverbed between Cemetery Rd and Rakauroa Rd near Matawai, about 60km north of Gisborne.
Shaw's survival story swept through New Zealand in what his family labelled a Christmas "miracle".
Back at his Pāpāmoa home shortly before Christmas and sitting in the sunshine, Shaw told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend he was "lucky to survive".
The 68-year-old said he has had time to "think about the accident and how it happened". While he could not recall being tired or the moment leading up to the crash, he believed he probably "dozed off".
"I must have. I'd literally done a U-turn, there were no skid marks."
Shaw spent about two-and-a-half days in that ditch enduring broken ribs, sternum and hand. He also had significant bruising on his chest.
"The car came down like this," Shaw said, gesturing a near-vertical shape with his hands.
"I remember it hitting, then the back wheels coming down. The whole front end was pretty much under the car, like this," Shaw said, curling his fingers.
"The doors were jammed in place on either side of the riverbed. The windows were all smashed. I did try to move a few times but it was too painful.
"I just waited until someone came to get me," he said.
The isolated area where Shaw crashed, just south of the Waioeka Gorge, has many dead spots with limited or no cellphone coverage.
Shaw found a torch, powered it with batteries he'd brought for children's Christmas presents, and placed it on the roof of his car to help aid people looking for him. But he believed the white light became lost amid sunlight and headlights.
Shaw now has another light he takes with him everywhere, one which flashes different lights, should disaster strike again.
Despite the ordeal, Shaw said he remained calm for most of it and survived without water but with a couple of sweets "which I used up on the first day".
However, as Shaw waited, he became plagued by strange dreams. One, in particular, played out his situation as if it were a play in which the scenario was pulled back like theatre curtains, he said.
"I woke up and screamed my head off."
Asked what got him through the two days trapped, Shaw replied: "Time kind of contracts when you are in that situation. You are really not thinking about anything."
He admitted that while he remained mostly calm in those two days "if it went into the next day, it could have been a very different story".
Shaw's Mazda Atenza was totally wrecked in the crash. His replacement now is the exact same model but four years younger.
"Mazdas are a good car to survive in," he said, chuckling.
At one point, Shaw heard people looking for him but his calls for help weren't heard.
"I could hear the cops walk about above me. They thought I was dead. I could hear their conversation. They seemed to think I was a goner, after that long," he said.
"I was extremely lucky. I had an amazing family who went out of their way to look for me. The emergency services were brilliant.
"If it wasn't for my niece deciding to look that one last time . . .
"I'm extremely grateful."
Shaw's family rallied a large search crew that continuously combed through the scrub and farmland between Ōpōtiki and Gisborne, where they believed he must have left the road somewhere. His brother Michael Shaw said at the time he feared his brother wouldn't be found alive.
Police traced Shaw's movements through CCTV footage from Tauranga, Edgecumbe, Taneatua and Ōpōtiki.
A helicopter was also hired to search from the air but was unsuccessful. As search teams began to wind up on day two, Shaw's niece Nicola Dunn noticed something shiny down a bank, just off the road.
It was Shaw's wrecked car, with him inside.
Tired, parched but relieved, Shaw was rushed to Gisborne Hospital for treatment.
On the phone in Hamilton, Dunn still recounts the scenario with some disbelief.
"That morning we had sort of finished walking through the gorge, looking down every bank and every hole. We all got home a bit down, we didn't find anything. We found a few cars but none were actually his.
"Then I was just taking our kid for a sleep in the truck and we drove past something, I just got this tiniest little bit of a glimpse – it almost looked like smashed glass or something but it was in this weird area.
"I thought it was probably nothing but my partner said we would go back past, just in case, so I looked further in that spot and thought yeah, that looks like there's a car down there.
"After that morning, I thought it could be anyone's car. I didn't really expect it to be Gregg's but had to check it anyway."
Dunn recognised the Mazda right away but couldn't see her uncle leaning back in the driver's seat at first.
"I called his name and the next thing, he replied. I thought 'Oh my God, he's alive!'
"It was a crazy feeling. I was jumping up in the air yelling 'he's alive!'."
Dunn gave her phone to her partner and ordered him to find signal and call for an ambulance and her mum. Within minutes firefighters from three local stations arrived and helped retrieve Shaw from his wreck.
"I'm really happy that we found him when we did. That night it poured down with rain. I'm not sure how he would've gone if he was there for another night."
Looking back on how her uncle survived, Dunn is inspired.
"He's handled it so well. A lot of people stuck in their car for that period of time would've gone pretty loopy. He just took it in his stride, just cruisy as."
Dunn told the Gisborne Herald at the time the search had been a rollercoaster of emotions and it was a "miracle" her uncle was found.
Back in the sunshine at his Pāpāmoa home, Shaw said he planned to return to Gisborne after Christmas this year.
"It will be the first time I've travelled any big distance since. I will be taking it very easy," he said.
Asked how life was now, all these months later, Shaw said life was "good". He has cut his retailing job down from 40 hours a week to 30 and was focusing on working on his house.
"People keep asking: 'Do I have dreams still?' But nah. I'm relaxed."
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