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A car plunged 30 metres down a steep hill off the Remarkables Skifield road near Queenstown landing on a rock.
The Australian tourists' rental car came to rest on the rock, perilously close to a much bigger dive.
"The car beached itself on the rock. If it wasn't there, it would have rolled a considerable distance further down the hill ... the hill went another 200m. Certainly there was nothing stopping them, apart from that rock," Constable Logan Dickie told The Southland Times.
He said the Australian driver in his mid-30s had passed a bus when "something happened" and the car left the road and rolled.
The driver, who was "a bit shocked", suffered minor cuts to his head and a sore arm while his 13-year-old daughter was not thought to be injured, Mr Dickie said.
Both were wearing seatbelts, and speed and alcohol were not believed to be factors in the crash.
It is understood nearby skifield staff and a St John ambulance crew rescued the pair from the car.
- NZPA
