Former navy diver Rob Hewitt was diving with mates off the Kapiti Coast in 2006 when he got caught in a rip. Photo / Supplied
A man who spent 75 hours lost at sea has recalled the fear and darkness while waiting for rescue.
Rob Hewitt's story is one of many miraculous accounts of Kiwis battling the New Zealand wilderness and surviving.
One more survival story has been added this week after Tom Phillips and his children walked through the front door of a Marokopa home unscathed.
They had been missing 17 days - relatives feared they had drowned after being swept away by a rogue wave.
Police said Phillips and the kids were in dense bush about 15km south of Kiritehere Beach, among rugged terrain.
It's raised questions about how the family managed to survive. Relatives had already started grieving for loved ones they believed had probably been washed out to sea by a wave.
Speaking to Newstalk ZB's Nick Mills today, Rob Hewitt described his own experience lost at sea in February 2006 as one of panic, fear, hope and belief.
The brother of former All Black Norm Hewitt had been on a diving trip with mates off the Kāpiti Coast.
He got caught in a rip, surfaced 600m behind their boat, and was quickly pushed further away by the tide.
Hewitt spent the next four days and three nights drifting up the coast towards Mount Taranaki, battling to survive.
He said being a ship's diver in the navy he was used to the ocean, and didn't panic straight away. But as the sun started to set on the first night, panic set in.
"I went missing around three, four o'clock in the afternoon, and around nine o'clock at night... okay I'm in trouble here so what do you do.
"What do you do when your back's up against the wall like that. I guess it was about facing my greatest fear, and my greatest fear was dying. What it was like to die, and what does it smell like, what does it look like. These are the things that I initially had to push through."
At first Hewitt stayed calm, reminding himself he was happy in the water. Then he started to pray.
"Karakia, connect to my tipuna, talk to my whānau members who have passed away in that next space and just try to connect. Connect my soul and my wairua and myself to something that gives me hope."
Hewitt said he couldn't sleep the first night, he just had catnaps.
"Throughout that night, I hadn't had anything to eat all day, I'm hypothermic, I'm dehydrated and sleep just comes and goes as it pleases. And then how I wake up is water just comes over my face, and next minute I've got a whole lot of water in my mouth and I'm starting to choke and drown. So that sort of kicked me back into reality."
Hewitt said he went through processes in his head to try and get through the ordeal.
"Processes within myself, and then processes checking my gear. How much air did I have, what can I do with this red dive tank, what can I do with this yellow catch bag. What can I do with the kinas and crayfish that I had.
"It was all about processes and just getting through the day."
A strong southerly picked up on Hewitt's second day at sea, and he knew that would make rescue by boat near impossible. So he turned his attention to the sky.
"I saw the AirNZ plane going from Wellington to Auckland or Christchurch to Auckland. For some reason I used my mask to try and signal to the plane.
"Sixty sets of eyes maybe looking down at the water and seeing some sort of light. That's just giving me hope. One hour that plane will be in Auckland, one hour those fellas will be home, one hour they'll be watching the news and then they'll think, oh heck I saw something."
Hewitt said he experienced some dark moments, but he had to believe and hope people were looking for him.
"I had to believe I had some mates and whānau members - and people I didn't even know - out looking.
"But as I believe, I also disbelieve, I think that nobody cares. It's about that wairua of mine coming up, coming down, hitting rock bottom - thinking that's rock bottom and then next minute it's not.
"Because next time I go down into that depression space it's even darker, and each time I go down it's harder for me to come out."
Hewitt said he gave up twice, on the second day, and again on the fourth day, just minutes before he was found.
He said he was never charged for the rescue effort, and it wasn't until after he was found he realised the huge effort that had gone in to searching for him.
"I felt stink because I thought nobody cared. Next minute my brother's on TV, my navy mates are on TV, saying we'll find him, we'll bring him back dead or alive."
