Slip survivor: 'I thought we were goners'

Jane Benton, with her stepdaughter Kylie, says rocks hit the bonnet and the side of her car

A Rotorua woman has pledged never to drive on State Highway 36 again after her car was crushed by giant boulders in a major slip.

Jane Benton, 40, and her stepdaughter Kylie, 21, miraculously suffered only minor injuries after a huge fall of mud and rocks in Mangorewa Gorge, north of Rotorua, crushed their car and shoved another into a river.

Tauranga Senior Sergeant Denton Grimes said four cars were on the road at the time of the slip and two of them were caught by tumbling debris.

The accident occurred at 8.30am, shortly before the section of highway, also known as Pyes Pa, was closed for rock blasting and removal.

Ms Benton, a financial adviser, said only seconds before she had been discussing how shaky the road looked during its reconstruction when the cliff fractured next to her.

"I saw something out of the corner of my eye and thought 'that shouldn't be happening ... we're goners'. As a huge woosh of boulders hit us I looked in the rear view [mirror] and saw a car behind us swept over the gorge. I thought we would follow.

"Rocks hit the bonnet, the side, it was over really quickly. And then there was quiet."

Forestry worker Kelvin Meredith, from Tauranga, was driving in the opposite direction and saw them engulfed in the piles of rock.

He said their Mercedes was "squashed almost into the ground. I thought they had no chance. But then I heard voices coming from the wreck".

"The woman [Jane] had her leg pinned by the steering wheel and her daughter [Kylie] was bent at 90 degrees, with the roof pushing down on her. She was very uncomfortable and freaking out."

Mr Meredith cut open the car with a hacksaw to ease the pressure on Kylie. Road workers also helped peel the roof back with climbing ropes.

Passersby comforted the two trapped women during the long wait for emergency services. The lack of cell phone coverage meant a call for an ambulance was delayed.

The women were pinned for an hour before the boulder could be removed.

"I could feel my feet so I knew I was okay," said Ms Benton. "But I could smell petrol and people kept saying the cliff could go again at any time."

The two struck a second bout of luck when an off-duty firewoman, an off-duty St John worker and a doctor on his way to work all separately arrived at the wreck to help.

They, and the driver whose car was pushed over the bank, were taken to Rotorua Hospital. All three were discharged with minor injuries.

Ms Benton, who drives through the gorge daily to work in Tauranga, said she would not be taking the route again. "It is amazing we walked away from it. I am just waiting for the tears to come."

Mr Meredith took the day off work to calm his nerves. "I'm settling into a whiskey," he said at 11am.

"If I had been 2 seconds earlier it could have been all over."

The New Zealand Transport Agency said no blasting had taken place in the area since last Tuesday.