Ariana Baty, 19, her boyfriend Kayden Burke 20, were trapped in their car for 18 hours. Photo / Facebook
A weekend away to celebrate her birthday was derailed when rushing floodwaters trapped a 19-year-old woman in her car with her boyfriend and two younger brothers for 18 hours.
They had no food and only a bottle of water to share.
Ariana Baty, 19, her boyfriend Kayden Burke 20, and her two younger brothers Max, 11, and Harlyn, 11, got stuck between two pools of flood water near Wairoa about midday yesterday.
Ms Baty was back home to see her family after her 19th birthday last week.
They were heading to Wairoa after spending the night at Miss Baty's grandparents Ruakituri farm. It had rained all night.
Driving their Ford Mondeo along Tiniroto Rd, they made it through one pool of water but reached another, 150m long and 30m wide, and realised they were going no further.
"I rang my poppa, who works for the RSA, and he must have pulled some strings or something and he [had] people out looking for us, trying to get towards us.
"There were three huge pools on the way into Wairoa. We crossed the first one, but we didn't realise there were another two in front of us," Miss Baty said.
"When we hit a really big one it was covering an entire bridge."
The water was so high the four didn't realise there was a bridge there at all.
There was about a kilometre between the two pools of water, so they drove back to a piece of higher ground.
"We had people ringing us 24/7. About 3 or 4 o'clock we got a call from Civil Defence saying they would quite possibly be sending a helicopter out to get us about 5 if it wasn't windy and they had clear visibility but they rang us at 5 and said the pilot didn't want to fly in that kind of weather and so we had to wait in the car overnight and they would come and get us as soon as it was daylight."
As they waited, the water levels rose and Miss Baty saw the roadside cats eyes disappear. Luckily it wasn't too cold.
Meanwhile her family was preparing to row kayaks through to rescue the stranded four, but police told them it was too dangerous.
"We were kind of pissed off but it wasn't the biggest of deals. We were nowhere near the water. We parked by an empty house."
The house was locked, but they had enough fuel in the car to be able to turn the heater on when needed and charge their phone on a portable charger.
They played games to keep themselves busy.
The younger boys went to sleep about 7 or 8pm. Miss Baty and her partner dozed off later, until they were woken by a policeman about 5.30am.
"We were sleeping all night and we heard a tap on the window."
He said the road was now clear, apart from the odd log, and they could drive out.
"When we got out we went straight to the Z and got some pies and lasagne."
Then they returned to Wairoa, where Miss Baty's two younger brothers live. They were back at school today and Miss Baty and her partner were about to return home to Palmerston North to get back to work.
Miss Baty's family has greeted them enthusiastically, with lots of hugs, but she was philosophical about her experience.
"It was just frustrating because me and Kayden had to get to work but we obviously couldn't do anything about it.'
The flights were carrying hundreds of athletes ahead of Saturday morning’s race.