Horsemen rescue woman from car on flooded road

8.45am

Karen Beaumont has the perfect excuse for not returning the homework of her Year Nine English class at Central Hawke's Bay College.

The books are drying out on the floor of her home south of Hastings after she was rescued from her floating car by two young men on horses yesterday.

Mrs Beaumont had left home too early to get the phone call saying bad weather had closed school for the day.

She headed back home shortly after 11am and everything went well until she turned onto Middle Rd, where she lives.

She drove into what she thought was a shallow stream of water across the road where the Papanui Stream flows into the Tukituki River.

As she realised it wasn't shallow and decided to reverse out of the water, the current picked up her Toyota, spun it round and dumped it in what she thinks was a roadside ditch, cutting the motor and the electrics which locked the doors.

Fortunately Matthew Hawkins and Ross Owers were riding past on their horses planning to shift some cattle.

Mrs Beaumont said she felt a "bit panicky" when she realised the doors were locked as she scrambled into the back of the car.

As she tried to kick open the back door Matthew, still on his horse, managed to shout out to her to throw him the key so he could unlock the hatch and let her out as the waters rose up to the windows.

"Don't miss, don't miss," she prayed as she threw the keys and he caught them, pushed his unwilling horse through the current to unlock the door without dismounting and let her out.

Matthew, 16, said he offered Mrs Beaumont a lift on his horse but she climbed out, waded through the water and walked about 500m home.

"I would have panicked a lot more if the two boys had not been there. They were really helpful," she said.

Matthew said the water was past his horse's belly as he helped Mrs Beaumont.

"My horse just handled it."

Mrs Beaumont said she managed to rescue the sodden school books, got them home and then videoed them so her class this morning understood why two weeks of work would not be returned to them immediately.

"Usually it's the kids making the excuses about why their work is late."

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY