A trip to the kitchen most likely saved the life of a Papamoa man after an out-of-control car smashed through one side of his house and out the other.
Emergency services were astonished that no one was hurt in the dramatic crash on Gravatt Rd last night.
A young woman, believed to be in her 20s, is expected to appear in Tauranga District Court today on charges of dangerous driving and driving under the influence of alcohol.
The woman was driving down Gravatt Rd near Evans Rd about 6.45pm when the car left the road, clipped the side of one house before ploughing through the sliding doors of another house and out the other side.
Dean Hickmott had been at his computer when the car hit his house before careening through his neighbour's brick home. "I didn't see it but I heard this incredibly loud bang, crunch," he said.
Mr Hickmott said his neighbour had been sitting in the lounge just seconds before the car came crashing through. He had gotten up to go into the kitchen two metres away.
"He just left the lounge when the car came through ... and went out the other side."
Other neighbours said they heard high-pitched squealing of tyres before the crash.
The shaken occupant of the badly damaged house declined to talk to the Bay of Plenty Times last night.
Senior Sergeant Carl Purcell said police believed the car was speeding and the driver was taken to Papamoa police station to be tested for alcohol. "Yes, the car did enter the house and actually exited the house through the lounge," Mr Purcell said.
Mr Purcell said there were two people in the car, which was severely damaged.
"It would appear that speed and alcohol were involved and the driver does not hold a driver's licence."
Mount Maunganui St John ambulance shift manager Gary Bishell described it as "very, very spectacular".
"We were called to a car crash, a car had collected with another car and clipped the corner of house and gone through the lounge of the second house."
A man walking his dog at the time described the scene as "pretty full on".
The man would not be named but said the house had been cordoned off.
"From what I saw there was fencing wood on the roof and a gaping hole on one side of the house," he said.
The car involved is understood to have been extensively damaged.
Additional reporting Sandra Conchie