A beer bottle thrown from a car has halted a Swiss couple's round-the-world cycling trip in New Zealand.
The bottle crashed into the frame of Nadine Rist's bike as she and Eskil Laubli battled into a northwesterly wind near Oxford in Canterbury on Boxing Day.
Shards of glass cut into Ms Rist's right leg, severing tendons near her ankle and below her knee.
Ms Rist, 29, a competitive skier, has her leg in plaster.
Yesterday she was contemplating how lucky she was to escape a more serious injury.
"It was a big smash. It could have killed someone," she said.
Ms Rist and Mr Laubli, 31, a ski coach, had planned their year-long trip for 18 months and were due home, after visiting Asia, London and the Continent, at the end of June.
They arrived in New Zealand last month, and were quickly introduced to the rigours of its roads.
Ms Rist had something thrown at her in Northland that missed, and Mr Laubli ended up in a ditch in his bid to evade a sheep truck that was getting dangerously close to him.
"We found it very hard to ride in New Zealand," Ms Rist said. "We have ridden through Canada, the US and Mexico and they are not nearly as bad as here."
- NZPA
Hurled bottle stops Swiss pair's round-the-world trip in NZ
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