TikTok influencer Brando Ferg documents his stranding on Arapaoa Island in the Marlborough Sounds, surviving the night and lucky escape. Video / Brando Ferg via TikTok
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TikTok influencer and outdoor adventurer Brandon Ferguson - better known as Brando Ferg - is thanking the quick actions of whānau and friends for averting what could have been a life-or-death situation.
The hunter and gatherer, who has more than 70,000 followers on TikTok, his cousin Helana and her partner Caleb decided to go fishing and diving for kaimoana in the beautiful Marlborough Sounds.
But Ferg said they ran into trouble on their way back in.
"When we went out, the day was great and we got plenty of fish and crays," Ferg told the Herald. "But on the way back in we started to experience boat trouble and the steering wire snapped so we had no steering.
"We were a long way from Waikawa, where we had launched. We were low on gas and had no steering. If we risked trying to make it back, we could have been swept out to the Tory Channel."
Coastguard to the rescue. Photo / Brando Ferg
The decision was made to limp to the nearest bay for shelter and look for help.
"We pulled in and looked around the place," Ferg said.
"There was an abandoned house there and holiday homes in the next bay, but no one was in them. We walked around to look for help not realising we were on an island. It was deserted.
"We tried calling emergency services but we were also in a blackspot. We had a VHF radio on the boat but because we had been walking around the island, the VHF radio batteries had gone flat.
"It was a combination of many things going wrong all at once."
As the sun was setting, Ferg said they needed to build a shelter and a fire to cook and keep warm.
He knew from his own experiences in the outdoors that it was best to stay put - help would eventually find them.
"We said a mihi to Tane Mahuta and then cut some ponga ( trunks of tree fern), and built our shelter wall. We did another mihi and cut some harakeke (flax), and laid that down with a bit of kawakawa (mildly antiseptic and has pain-numbing properties) to keep the bugs away."
Once the shelter was built, kai was cooked.
Being stranded on an island doesn't mean you can't eat well. Photo / Brando Ferg
The trio may have been stranded, but ate like royalty with fresh fish, crayfish, mussels and fresh water on the menu.
Ferg said about 3am, he heard a boat off the point of the island.
He rushed to the beach and flashed his torch towards the boat - which initially stopped and reversed - but then carried on.
Caleb also ran to the boat to retrieve a flare. But by then, the offshore boat had turned the corner and motored on.
Ferg remained on the beach this time and keep watch with a flare, but as the sun rose, he fell asleep. Luckily Caleb had woken and let off the flare and the Coastguard came to their rescue.
"We were so thankful and grateful to see them," Ferg said, of the rescue two weeks ago.
He found out concerned whānau had made calls to police to raise the alarm once they realised the trio had not returned from their fishing trip.
"To our friends and whānau who made 'the call' thank you all so much!
"If not for Coastguard NZ, we could still be out there now," Ferg said.
"We would like to thank them for all their hard effort and commitment they put into finding us and also for saving lives throughout New Zealand altogether."
