KEY POINTS:
A badly injured woman pulled safely from a Waitomo cave early yesterday morning was part of a rescue team that saved Motueka doctor Michael Brewer from a South Island cave last year.
Jane Furkert was yesterday recovering in Waikato Hospital after a rescue team stretchered her from the Luckie Strike cave to a waiting helicopter about 1.30am.
The 38-year-old had endured a near 12-hour ordeal which began on Thursday afternoon when she unhitched herself on a traverse line and plunged eight metres into a stream. She broke a hip and smashed three teeth.
Rewind to August last year and Ms Furkert was among dozens of search and rescue cavers who successfully extricated Dr Brewer out of the notoriously dangerous Middle Earth cave near Takaka last year.
Dr Brewer spent 70 hours trapped 400m underground in some of New Zealand's most difficult subterranean territory after he was hit by falling rocks.
He could not be contacted for comment yesterday although staff at his Motueka medical practice said he was aware Ms Furkert, whom he knows personally, had been in trouble.
Ms Furkert was not speaking with media yesterday but said her rescuers had done a "wonderful job" in returning her to safety.
Her friend and spokesman, Kip Mandeno, said she was grateful to her rescuers - most of whom she probably knew.
"That's the good thing about caving," he said.
"If you're going to get rescued it's usually by your mates, that's how small the caving community is."
New Zealand Land Search and Rescue cave adviser Van Watson said extracting Ms Furkert, who was injured about 1km into the 1.5km cave system about 2pm on Thursday, was "a very technical exercise".
A team of 12 including members of local black water rafting and caving companies and recreational cavers negotiated the tricky passage, sometimes placing her stretcher on a flying fox above crevices up to 20m deep.
After four hours the team had covered about 750 metres. It took another four hours to travel the last 250 metres as the passage narrowed and became even more difficult.
Nelson Speleological Society president Andrew Smith told the Weekend Herald while he was obviously concerned for his friend's wellbeing, Ms Furkert had more than a decade of caving experience.
"She's very experienced, put it this way, she's put in her time," he said.
He doubted Ms Furkert's gruelling ordeal would put her off caving.
Jane Furkert was herself involved in saving a hurt caver's life last year
BY JAMES IHAKA A badly injured woman pulled safely from a Waitomo cave early yesterday morning was part of a rescue team that saved Motueka doctor Michael Brewer from a South Island cave last year.
Jane Furkert was yesterday recovering in Waikato Hospital after a rescue team stretchered her from the Luckie Strike cave to a waiting helicopter about 1.30am.
The 38-year-old had endured a near 12-hour ordeal which began on Thursday afternoon when she unhitched herself on a traverse line and plunged eight metres into a stream. She broke a hip and smashed three teeth.
Rewind to August last year and Ms Furkert was among dozens of search and rescue cavers who successfully extricated Dr Brewer out of the notoriously dangerous Middle Earth cave near Takaka last year.
Dr Brewer spent 70 hours trapped 400m underground in some of New Zealand's most difficult subterranean territory after he was hit by falling rocks.
He could not be contacted for comment yesterday although staff at his Motueka medical practice said he was aware Ms Furkert, whom he knows personally, had been in trouble.
Ms Furkert was not speaking with media yesterday but said her rescuers had done a "wonderful job" in returning her to safety.
Her friend and spokesman, Kip Mandeno, said she was grateful to her rescuers - most of whom she probably knew.
"That's the good thing about caving," he said.
"If you're going to get rescued it's usually by your mates, that's how small the caving community is."
New Zealand Land Search and Rescue cave adviser Van Watson said extracting Ms Furkert, who was injured about 1km into the 1.5km cave system about 2pm on Thursday, was "a very technical exercise".
A team of 12 including members of local black water rafting and caving companies and recreational cavers negotiated the tricky passage, sometimes placing her stretcher on a flying fox above crevices up to 20m deep.
After four hours the team had covered about 750 metres. It took another four hours to travel the last 250 metres as the passage narrowed and became even more difficult.
Nelson Speleological Society president Andrew Smith told the Weekend Herald while he was obviously concerned for his friend's wellbeing, Ms Furkert had more than a decade of caving experience.
"She's very experienced, put it this way, she's put in her time," he said.
He doubted Ms Furkert's gruelling ordeal would put her off caving.
