Upper Hutt waterfall disaster: Rescued teen Maia Johnston gives update on her recovery

• Maia Johnston has described her injuries after falling down an Upper Hutt waterfall.
• The 19-year-old spent two nights alone and injured before being found by Land Search and Rescue (LandSAR).
• A Givealittle page to help with her recovery costs has raised at least $5700.

A teenager rescued from Upper Hutt bush after a huge community search just before Christmas has shared an update on her recovery after suffering multiple horror injuries.

Maia Johnston disappeared from her mother’s Tōtara Park home a few days before Christmas, having not returned from what was expected to be a short evening walk.

Maia Johnston, who was rescued in December 2024 after falling down a waterfall in Upper Hutt, has shared an update about her injuries and recovery.

The 19-year-old was missing for two nights as family, police, LandSAR and members of the public searched through pouring rain and darkness for her.

Johnston had fallen down a waterfall near a bush track a short distance from the house, and was rescued by LandSAR and taken to hospital badly injured.

She shared a video on social media with her employer, Seed Waikato, this week, detailing how severe her injuries had been, and how her recovery has been going.

“Since my accident I’ve been recovering from some pretty major injuries,” Johnston said in the video.

“As you can see, I have a beautiful new smile,” she said, gesturing to her face. She has several missing teeth, which she is still awaiting dentures for.

Dentists were able to repair her bottom teeth, but the dentures would temporarily replace teeth missing from her top row, before she has implants.

Johnston said she had split her kneecap and tendon, which prevented her from bending her knee. She now wears a brace as her leg recovers.

Maia Johnston is recovering in hospital after her ordeal.

She also suffered broken ribs, a ruptured lung, a “torn apart” spleen, fractures to her jaw, cheekbones and eye sockets, and a concussion.

“The concussion has been pretty next-level,” she said, noting it had been “burning me out really easily”.

“I am well and I am alive,” Johnston said in the video.

“I’m really grateful for all the support you guys have been giving me.”

On a Givealittle page set up to cover extra costs for her recovery, Johnston’s mum, Amy Walsh posted an update saying she was “just blown away by the love and support from friends, family, my neighborhood and complete strangers who came together at an impossibly tough time of year to search for my girl and then to financially help us all after she was found”.

Maia Johnston must wear a brace for her injured knee as she recovers.

“I am so beyond grateful for all of the support to our family in this incredibly tough time,” Walsh wrote in the update in late January.

“While Maia is embracing gumby life with her missing teeth and is still her confident beautiful self, she is getting closer to being fitted with a temporary plate and has been referred for implants in a few months' time when her facial fractures and jaw bone are healed.”

Walsh said Johnston was looking forward to healing and getting back to the gym, which was her “happy place”.

“One day at a time still, but she is healing well and I am forever grateful for every single piece of support from each and every one of you.”

The Givealittle has so far raised at least $5700.

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.