Hunter survives two nights in bush after 22m fall

A Wellington man hunting in Hawke's Bay survived a tumbling fall of over 22m down a waterfall and two nights in the open before being rescued yesterday.

Brian Collins, 36, of Lower Hutt, was just three hours into an evening hunting trip when he fell into a waterfall on the Kaweka ranges, between Napier and Taihape. He, his stepson and a friend had set out from the Napier-Taihape Road at 5pm.

Mr Collins, a hunter with more than 20 years experience, took a shot at a deer at about 7.30pm and went looking for it.

"It had gone down a bit of a scree slope. I went down to where I thought it might have been and was looking down the slope when the bank gave way," Mr Collins said from his hospital bed this morning.

"The next thing I knew I was flying. I fell about 2m into a steep waterfall, then slid down about 10-12m. I couldn't stop, had my momentum up. Then I came off a vertical drop of about 10m onto rocks and gravel," he said.

The 1.75m, 70kg, Mr Collins found himself "bruised over my whole body except for my head", his left knee had a gash through to his bone, and he was lying less than a metre from another drop of 10m.

"I had to half-pie shuffle and crawl around to get to a 30m scree slope. I skied down it to the pack," he said.

Mr Collins spent the next two nights covered in a thin silver survival blanket.

"I had a bit of food and I was near water so that was okay. It was clear on Friday night, but rained a bit on Saturday night," he said.

The other two members of his party searched for him on Friday night, then again all day Saturday. At about 8pm Saturday night they made voice contact and Mr Collins told them to call for a helicopter.

The Lowe Corp rescue helicopter flew a team to Mr Collins at 9.30am yesterday morning. Pilot Steve Tollenaar said a strong downdraft created by a southwesterly wind made it awkward using a winch to access him.

The team reached the man and made him comfortable until the winds died sufficiently for Mr Collins to be winched out.

Mr Collins is likely to be in hospital until Wednesday, and said it could be a while before he goes hunting again.

Immediately after dropping Mr Collins off at Hawke's Bay Hospital, the helicopter flew to Panekuri Hut on the Lake Waikaremoana Track to pick up an English tramper with a dislocated shoulder. The man, in his thirties, was flown to Wairoa Hospital.

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY