A woman in excruciating pain after slipping in steep bush terrain and breaking her lower leg was quickly located, winched to safety and flown to Whangārei Hospital thanks to Northland's rescue helicopter team.
The woman, in her 40s, was a volunteer with a team from the Bream Head Conservation Trust checking possum bait stations in the Bream Head Scenic Reserve, one of New Zealand's premier coastal forest reserves and a gateway to Whangārei Harbour.
One of the team members raised the alarm on Tuesday about 1.30pm by walking to a high point to get cellphone coverage and advising rescuers of their GPS coordinates.
The Northland Rescue Helicopter team of St John intensive care flight medic and winch operator Mark Going, St John flight medic Matt McAteer and pilot Susan Dinkelacker left the chopper's base on Western Hills Drive and eight minutes later they were hovering above the thick bush which was shielding the injured woman.
The woman was a few hundred metres off the main track above Peach Cove, on the northern side of the ridge.