The Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter staff put the man to sleep before placing him on a stretcher and winching him into the hovering helicopter. Photo / Paul Taylor
A man who fell 40 metres down a cliff while chasing a wild goat says he's lucky to be alive.
"They said I should've either been dead or paralysed," the 26-year-old said of the Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter crew, which winched him from the scene of his accident and flew
him to Hawke's Bay Hospital after he fell down a sheer cliff face on Tuesday.
The man said the trouble began just after breakfast on Tuesday morning at the farm in Tangoio, north of Napier, where he lives. "I looked out the window and saw goats on our land. I thought I'd catch my stepdaughter a goat because it's her birthday soon."
However, as he pursued a goat on the side of a hill, he lost his footing. "I forgot there was a drop. I slid straight off." He flipped and cartwheeled down the hill like a rag doll, hitting boulders on the way.
"I just kept going. I landed on a boulder on my side, which cartwheeled me over and I smashed my face on the next boulder." Finally he broke the fall with his leg.
