When Alice Bradley lay bleeding from the head and unable to walk on a track at the top of Whareroa Farm, she did not realise that the decision she was about to make was one of life or death.
Digging into her pocket, she clutched her cellphone and dialled 111 and, just over half an hour after tripping and hyperextending her right knee, she was being airlifted by Life Flight's Westpac Rescue Helicopter from the quiet reserve to the rooftop of Wellington Hospital.
On Saturday, September 10, as the southerly and patches of mist grew heavier, Alice sat in pain weighing up whether to call emergency services.
"It was a hard decision to make because it's been schooled into me that you only ring 111 for emergencies and I hadn't realised the seriousness of my injury," said the Paraparaumu resident, who fractured her tibial plateau and was hypothermic by the time the chopper arrived.
