'I'm the luckiest person in Northland'

Kaitaia woman Ivy Cramond lost her home and everything she owned on Tuesday afternoon, as the gale-force winds and driving rain that would last four days battered Kaitaia. But she didn't lose her life, or even suffer serious injury. And that, she said, made her the luckiest person in Northland.

The 58-year-old was pinned to her chair when a giant macrocarpa toppled on to her rented house in Korimako Lane, bringing the roof crashing down on top of her.

The roof was resting on her legs, head and one hand, but the top of her recliner chair took the weight of the heaviest beam.

"I'm lucky to be alive," she said.

Ivy she had rented the "lovely home" for the last nine years, but had been concerned about a row of large macrocarpas above the house, especially when she saw the packed isobars and easterly wind prediction in Tuesday's weather forecast.

Sure enough, one of the trees came crashing down about 2pm.

"Then about 4pm the wind really picked up, and I though, 'Gee, this doesn't look too flash'," she said. Half an hour later she heard an almighty crack, then a smash as the 25-metre tree hit the house and the roof collapsed on top of her.

She had no doubt that had she been lying back in the chair, as she usually did, she would have been killed. Instead a rafter landed on either armrest, and the back of the chair took the weight of the central beam. She was in pain, and pinned down by her head, shins and one arm, but knew, thanks to 25 years' experience as a St John ambulance volunteer, that no bones were broken. And, not one given to swearing, said to herself: "Oh bother, I think I'm in a bit of a mess."

She managed to wriggle one arm free and reach her cell phone, which she had had the foresight to charge before the power went out, and called 111. The "wonderful" operator stayed on the line and reassured her until the Kaitaia Fire Brigade arrived.

They used hydraulic lifting and spreading equipment to raise the roof, then got her chair out, put her on a stretcher and carried her to an ambulance.

"It was very painful, with all that weight on my leg, but they were just brilliant. They didn't take long to get there, and they worked out pretty quickly how to get me out. I know the fire boys; it was nice to see their friendly faces," she said.

She was admitted to Kaitaia Hospital, where she described herself as battered, bruised and shaken.

"My home has been wrecked and I've lost all my possessions, but I'm not really thinking about it. I know I'm very lucky to be alive," she said.

Her message to others caught up in difficult situations was "Don't panic and don't give up, because help is on the way."