Woman winched from muddy estuary trying to take short cut

The Okura River. Photo / File

A woman who got stuck in thick mud north of Auckland this morning had attempted to take a short cut across an estuary.

The woman was forced to cling to a yacht in the Okura River for about an hour after becoming trapped up to her knees at low tide shortly before 11.45am, Jaron Phillips from the Fire Service northern communications centre said.

The Westpac Rescue Helicopter was sent to winch her out of the mud in the middle of the estuary.

Advanced paramedic Chris Deacon said the woman, who was local to the area, had been out for a walk on the Haigh Access Rd, a commonly used walkway.

"Being low tide, she thought she'd take a short cut across the estuary to go home, and halfway across she realised that it was too deep in mud, and she became fatigued," Mr Deacon said.

"She had her cellphone, so she called for help."

The woman was "quite embarrassed about it all", he said.

"She was really nice, and really embarrassed about it. She just hadn't thought about it really. Ordinarily you see a bit of mud and you can walk across it, but it's quite deep [in the Okura estuary] and she sunk into it," Mr Deacon said. "Poor thing."

The woman was winched out safe and well about 12.40pm, after spending around an hour trapped.

"It was fairly straight-forward. We thought she might have been badly stuck in the mud, but she lifted out pretty well," Mr Deacon said. "The winchmen did a great job."

Inspector Willie Taylor of the police northern communications centre said the woman had misjudged the "really deep, icky, oozy mangrove mud".