KEY POINTS:
A man who plunged eight metres down a dry waterfall while hunting inland from Tokomaru Bay on Sunday night is in a serious condition in Waikato Hospital's intensive care unit.
The 23-year-old man was transferred to Hamilton on Monday with serious head injuries after losing consciousness for nearly five hours while a rescue party battled dense bush to carry him to safety.
A Waikato Hospital spokeswoman said the man, from Hastings, was likely to be transferred to the hospital's neurosurgery unit later today.
A rescue party of 10 Tokomaru Bay farmers and volunteer firefighters worked until the early hours of Monday morning to carry the man to a waiting ambulance.
"I have never seen anything like it - he really was in the middle of no-man's-land," said Tokomaru Bay deputy chief fire officer Mandy Cannary.
"It really was a jungle out there. He couldn't see a thing and just stepped out into mid-air and fell down a cliff.
"I almost did the same thing. If I hadn't been able to grab on to a tree, I would have ended up the same."
The group of four firefighters - two men and two women - were led into the bush by one of five farmers who came to help.
"They heard what had happened and came out to help. If it wasn't for them, there is no way we would have found him."
When Ms Cannary and her crew arrived, other farmers had already stopped the bleeding from a "huge laceration" on the back of the man's head and wrapped him in a sleeping bag.
"They had managed to stop the bleeding, but he was becoming hypothermic and was unconscious," she said.
"I managed to check the pulse. It was weak and, while his breathing was regular, I knew the longer we sat around waiting, the worse it would be for him."
The man was stretchered out of the bush after the group was told a helicopter could not make it to the area.
"We were on our hands and knees, crawling under vines and hauling this guy out through gorse and bracken," she said.
"It was really hard going. He was a tall guy and unconscious for most of it, so was a real deadweight."
Farmer Meyric Hindmarsh was one of the first called to help after one of the man's friends climbed out of the bush and ran to the nearest farm.
"We were on our hands and knees to get to him. We took in a sleeping bag and a GPS unit, and found him pretty easily, but had to use a machete to cut a track out," he said.
"It's pretty rugged country in there. It is really dense and there is a lot of tight mingi mingi (bush shrub).
"It was really steep. It was an uphill battle... there were not even any animal tracks to follow.
"He was out of it the whole time we were carrying him. He was pretty crook. I was just glad we weren't carting out a body."
Mr Hindmarsh did not think twice about going into the bush to help.
"I don't know if any of us are heroes. I'd just like to think if I was KO'ed in the bush, someone would come to haul me out.
"But it's not something I want to repeat any time soon."
Although exhausted, the volunteer firefighters were called to another accident at 6am, when a logging truck rolled.
Several had to take the day off work to attend the second accident and recover from the search and rescue.
- NZPA
