Charity ride has a near-fatal finish

A motorcyclist who cheated death after plunging 100m off a cliff during a charity ride says he can't wait to get back on his bike.

Ian Freer suffered eight broken ribs and a punctured lung but somehow escaped without severe injuries.

The Pukekohe man was taking part in a charity trail ride in farmland at Waeranga, north of Huntly, last Sunday when he lost control of his bike on a corner at 60km/h.

His 18-year-old son Sean, who was riding a few metres behind, watched in horror as Freer tumbled down the almost sheer face.

"At one point I thought I was going to die," said Freer. "My son Sean came scrambling down to where I was. He was yelling, 'Are you okay?'.

"I managed to get into a sitting position but I couldn't breathe. I tried to extend my lungs to get some air into them but it didn't feel like there was any air going in. It was definitely a bit of an eye-opener."

Freer spent four agonising hours on the side of the ravine as paramedics, who feared he had spinal injuries, worked out how to move him to safety.

Sean, who works with his dad for the family's commercial cleaning business, said: "He was in a lot of pain, but I told him, 'You'll be OK'. He knows he couldn't die, there's too much work to do."

Freer was eventually carried out of the narrow valley after a "spectacular" piece of flying by Westpac Waikato Air Ambulance pilot Dan Harcourt.

Harcourt said: "I wandered down to where he was and saw there was a small flat section where he was laying. We decided to hover the helicopter over and some of the guys put him in the machine. [The manoeuvre] was definitely a good option in this case."

Father-of-three Freer celebrated his 45th birthday in Waikato Hospital on Tuesday and was released the following day with a "huge bag of painkillers".

He added: "I'm still bloody sore. I haven't slept the last few nights, and I can't lie on my side or my back.

"I've got some serious bruising all the way down to my thigh on my left-hand side."

But he said the experience hadn't put him off riding and he would be back on his $14,000 Honda 450X as soon as he recovered.

"The bike is actually in decent shape. It actually suffered less damage than I did."