Rider's miracle survival

A motorcyclist has survived being trapped for 14 hours underneath his heavy Harley Davidson with his face in a puddle.

Police say the Greymouth man craned his neck to get the corner of his mouth out of the puddle to breathe.

The man's riding companions last saw him about 10km before Haast, at the bottom of the South Island's West Coast, and they got to Westport, 450km to the north, before they noticed he was missing.

After a rescue effort by police and Search and Rescue, he was found by friends near Haast at about 1am yesterday.

West Coast Search and Rescue co-ordinator Sean Judd said the rescue was a "massive" effort.