Step too far leads to six hour river ordeal

Wendy Grylls was swept 2.5km down a South Canterbury river after falling out of her kayak. Photo / Supplied

Cold, wet and lost in the dark after being swept down a swollen Canterbury river, Wendy Grylls had a moment when she thought she would never see her family again.

The 61-year-old Coromandel woman managed to get out of the Opihi River after being carried downstream for about 2.5km but exhausted after scrambling for hours through thick vegetation in darkness, she felt hypothermia might be kicking in.

"I lay down and thought that I physically was getting to the point where I probably couldn't go on," she told the Herald.

"I'm a reasonably strong person, but I'm a bit overweight and at 61 - not Tarzan or anything - I had worked extremely hard to get through all those trees."

Those doubts passed and she found the will to get up and press on to find help.

Mrs Grylls has fought cancer and survived, and this was not going to beat her either. "I just wanted to live."

The daughter of All Black great Bob Scott, Mrs Grylls was holidaying in a motorhome in the South Island when the nearly six-hour ordeal began.

She went down to the river, after drinking wine, to meet some friends and roast some marshmallows about 9pm on Saturday.

"I think what had happened was maybe the bank of the river had been undermined because it [the river level] was pretty high. And I stepped maybe too close ... and it just caved in and the stones all gave way and I got thrown into the water."

Dazed after hitting her head, she swallowed some water and was "coughing and spluttering".

Despite being a capable swimmer, she could not get back to land. She had to stay upright as the fast-flowing river carried her, banging her against rocks along the way.

"I did eventually get to an area, three or four times, where I could stand up, but the river was so fast and the rocks were slippery, and it just took me off my feet again."

After about 40 minutes in the river, she got hooked up in trees hanging over the water and managed to get out on to a bank.

In the pitch black, she spent hours negotiating her way through trees and thorny vegetation.

When she finally did find her way to a farmhouse, an exhausted Mrs Grylls' hopes were dashed when no one came to the door.

At a second house, 10 minutes down the road, she convinced an occupant to open the door and call for help.

Senior Constable Mike Stephens of Geraldine said Mrs Grylls was extremely lucky to have survived.

"I said to her: Go and buy yourself a Lotto ticket."

After being treated for her injuries, Mrs Grylls said: "I look at it that I'm really glad that even though I'm 61, I'm a pretty resourceful, strong-character type person. I was a bit frightened, but I never cried. I called myself a few names."