Claire Nelson before she set off on the trail. Photo / Supplied
Claire Nelson before she set off on the trail. Photo / Supplied
"This is the first time I've actually cried . . . because I'm getting really freaked-out now."
Snippets of a teary Claire Nelson in newly-released footage reveal the mental battle she endured over her four days alone and injured in the Californian desert.
The videos, teased by TVNZ in atrailer for its Sunday programme, were messages recorded by Nelson for friends and family back in May, in Joshua Tree National Park.
The 36-year-old lay in a dried-out riverbed for 72 hours, alone and nursing a shattered pelvis after slipping on a boulder stack and falling several metres to the ground.
"I might die here," another clip pictured her saying.
Three months after undergoing pelvic surgery, she is now having physio to help her regain the ability to walk.
Posts on social media detail her excitement over being able to put her full weight on her left leg, for the first time since her fall.
"Can't wait to get walking again!" she tweeted.
The avid hiker has been kitted out with a new rental wheelchair, which she says is "so much lighter, prettier and sturdier" than the one she had used back in Canada.
Nelson, who had been living abroad for more than a decade, had moved to Toronto from the UK on a working holiday visa in March.
Leading up to the accident, however, she been cat-sitting for friends at their home in California and hiking "most days".
Today at physio I put my full weight on my left leg for the first time since I fell off that boulder stack three months ago! pic.twitter.com/Barwtvvbjb
In a Skype interview back in July, Nelson recalled the "horrible, horrible" moment when she slipped.
"I immediately started moving - I remember being surprised at how quickly it happened, and there was nothing to hold on to."
She suspected her injuries were serious when tried to sit up, and felt pain shoot through her body.
"I realised: I can't move, I'm on my own, no one really knows that I'm here … I scrambled to get my phone out of my backpack and dial 911 and then there's no service.
"As these factors landed one at a time, they impounded so hard," Nelson said.
Claire Nelson lay petrified of rattlesnakes for three days in the desert, collecting urine to drink in a sunscreen cap. Photo / Supplied
Hickton flew to LA to meet her daughter at the beginning of July before the pair flew on to Toronto together.
They returned to New Zealand at the end of August after Nelson decided it would be simpler dealing with accommodation and rehab costs in her home country.
There has finally been some positive news in an ongoing battle with the insurance company Nelson is insured with - after months of discussion it was finally agreed her hefty US hospital bills would be covered.
More than 50,000 New Zealand dollars raised for Nelson through a GoFundMe page will now be put towards her rehab, medical and trauma therapy in New Zealand.
Hickton told the Weekend Herald any donations left after Nelson was fully recovered would be donated to the volunteer search and rescue in the Joshua Tree park.
