Man rescued after falling 100m down a ravine and breaking his ankle

It took crews almost seven hours to reach a stranded hunter with a broken ankle. Photo / Stephen Barker

A man has been rescued after falling 100m down a ravine in Opotiki.

About 2.30pm two hunters were carrying a pig out of the Motu River yesterday.

They were about 14km up the river when one of the men fell and broke his ankle.

The other hunter had to walk to find cell phone reception and managed to call for help about 3.40pm. Emergency services arrived at Motu Rd about 5pm.

Rescuers had to drop down the bank in a bid to reach the man, who was hunting at the time, and became stuck in a creek after an injury.

A Search and Rescue team used lines to get down the bank, but it took crews almost seven hours to reach him because of poor weather.

A police spokeswoman said LandSAR began to clear an area for the stretcher around 10.20pm, but the patient wasn't transported to hospital until around midnight.

She said an access route down to the river had to be made by cutting back bush with chainsaws and slashers. They had to use ropes to get the stretcher the man was on up about 100m from the river to the road.

He was taken to Whakatane Hospital with a broken ankle.