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"Devastating" is the only word Maree Gorton can use to describe the feeling of seeing a helicopter fly on without seeing her as she wandered lost in bush off South Otago's Tautuku Peninsula.
During the 36 hours she spent lost in bush last week, Mrs Gorton saw rescue helicopters twice but both times they could not see her.
"I saw the helicopter turn its lights to the coast but it missed me. It was devastating."
Speaking from her Milton home yesterday, Mrs Gorton, 54, bore visible signs of her misadventure - windburn, sunburn and muscle stiffness - but remained positive, if quite tired.
"I'll walk it off."
She became lost after heading out on what should have a 4km to 5km walk from her family's Tautuku Peninsula bach on Thursday morning to help her over the stiffness from falling out of a hammock.
"I thought it was the only way to get the soreness out."
Mrs Gorton, a regular walker, headed into the bush, with her picnic lunch of Ryvita sandwiches, fruit, a packet of chips and biscuits, following the blue tape which marked the track.
But after two hours she could not find the markers and realised she was going in circles.
Briefly spotting the markers again before they ran out, Mrs Gorton, a mother of two, realised she was lost.
She tried to find her bearings using the line of rata trees that could be seen from the bach but as she fought her way through gullies of dense bush could not get her bearings.
"I fell on my butt a couple of times. As the bush got dense I got down on my hands and knees."
By 10pm on Thursday she gave up, found shelter and lit a fire. She stayed up all night keeping it alternatively smoking and flaming.
"Thank God I'm a smoker. I had a book with me so I used pages from that to light the fire."
It was early on Friday morning when Mrs Gorton saw the first helicopter and after it missed her she again started fighting her way through dense bush. When she saw the next helicopter about lunchtime, she waved her purple towel but to no avail.
Mrs Gorton finally ended up on a clifftop where she tried to get cellphone coverage, but by 8.30pm she was feeling cold, so crawled into flax and drifted off to sleep. When she opened her eyes to see a shadow go past, she could not believe it.
"I closed my eyes and opened them again. I said, 'Hello'. This guy turned around and said, 'Hello, we've been looking for you.' I've never been so glad to see someone in all my life."
Her rescuer had been trying for cellphone coverage too, but luckily fellow searchers were making a camp nearby and rushed to warm her up with a jacket, sleeping bag and warm food.
When she next woke up, the helicopter was there to pick her up.
She spent the night in Dunedin Hospital being treated for mild hypothermia and dehydration before going back to Tautuku on Saturday night to thank the 70 people who helped search for her.
"The response was fantastic."
She intended to complete the walk to "the needles" one day although husband David said next time she would not be going on her own.
It had been an extremely emotional time for the family, he said.
"Whoever says grown men don't cry, don't believe them."
As well as getting back to her walking, Mrs Gorton also had another goal, a campaign to get cellphone coverage into the area.
As not only could she not get coverage, neither could her family who struggled to raise the alarm or the search and rescue teams looking for her.
"If I'd had coverage, I'd have been out of there that first night."
- OTAGO DAILY TIMES
