KEY POINTS:
'Absolutely stuffed.' That's how an exhausted Maree Gorton described her feelings after a nightmarish 36 hours lost in dense bush on the rugged Otago Peninsula.
The fighting 54-year-old was holidaying with husband David and daughter Karina at the family bach on Tautuku Peninsula south of Balclutha.
Gorton set off for a walk on Thursday morning but failed to return, sparking a massive search and rescue operation.
She was found weak and cold at 9.30pm on Friday, less than 4km from where she started, just as searchers were winding up for the day.
Speaking to the Herald on Sunday exclusively from Tautuku last night, Gorton revealed how she spent her night in the bush sucking on an orange.
She said she became disorientated after walking into a deep gully, several bays from where she later realised she should have been.
"I sat there and wondered, 'how the hell did I do that'. At 10pm I just thought I had to get in shelter and light a fire."
Settled in flax and concerned about keeping the fire going, she didn't sleep, but remembers hearing a helicopter flying overhead early on Friday morning.
Gorton began walking again but was unable to climb back up the gully.
She had some Ryvita sandwiches, fruitcake and a packet of chips but was too afraid to eat because she had no water.
"I felt like I was a failure because I hadn't got to where I wanted to go. I thought about how embarrassing [it was], could I survive ... just silly things."
The Milton resident was found by a ground team late on Friday night.
"I'd been asleep for 10 minutes and someone walked past me, so I said 'hello'. He said, 'We've been looking for you'. I didn't quite believe it."
Search head sergeant Richard Whitmore said the lack of cellphone coverage and a shortage of radio communications equipment meant she was unable to be airlifted to hospital for at least a further three hours.
Gorton was taken to Dunedin Hospital suffering from mild hypothermia but was discharged yesterday morning.
By the afternoon she was back at the bach, where she has been holidaying for the past 35 years, full of praise for her saviours.
"Nothing will ever repay what they did for me but then again I think Telecom should look at putting in a receiver in this area because I had my cellphone with me. I could have been out of there on Thursday.
Still, husband David was ecstatic.
"I was hoping to not have to prepare for the worst," he said.
