A week after plummeting 55m down a waterfall with her owner in a remote area of the West Coast, Molly the dog has been found alive and well.
On Tuesday last week, the 4-year-old border collie and her owner were tramping near Campbell Biv, a remote area of the West Coast, when the woman lost her footing and tumbled over a 55m waterfall.
Precision Helicopters pilot Lily Newton said the woman initially came to in a pool at the bottom, badly shaken and bruised, and unable to remember if Molly had fallen with her.
“She activated her personal locator beacon and was airlifted to Greymouth Hospital,” Newton said.
“They had a little look [for Molly], but she was nowhere to be seen.”
In the days that followed, a largely community-driven effort to locate Molly began, with Newton and her team stepping in after being contacted by a friend of the owner.
“We decided the next day on our own accord, and off our own budget, to fly out there and go and have a look for her,” she said.
Initial aerial searches proved unsuccessful, and the cost quickly mounted, though Newton said she had a strong feeling the dog was still alive.
“I said, ‘I reckon that dog’s still alive’.”
Newton launched a fundraising appeal on social media to fund another search flight.
“I was just overwhelmed with the amount of people that wanted to donate, and the amount of people that wanted to volunteer,” she said.
“Countless offers of people from all around the South Island wanting to drive over … I had to turn heaps of them away so that we didn’t have too many.”
Within hours, donations had poured in - receiving far more support than the required $2400.
“When I checked it at 9.30pm […] we were already at $11,500. So I closed it there because it was enough to do more than three hours of search in a helicopter.”
Newton said the breakthrough came when a Christchurch-based thermal imaging specialist, Georgina Du Val, volunteered to help.
Du Val told the Herald she was heartbroken to hear about Molly being lost and felt compelled to act.
Using heat-detection equipment, a search team consisting of Precision Helicopters pilot Matt Newton, Wayne Holmes of Methven LandSAR, Dawson Bliss, and Du Val, scanned the rugged terrain where Molly was last seen.
“I spotted her with the camera, little white hot dot … zoomed in, and she was at the bottom of the waterfall," Du Val said.
Holmes was then winched into the area with his Jack Russell to retrieve the dog.
“For seven days, she must not have moved,” Newton said.
Though initially hesitant to approach her rescuers, Molly appeared to be in good condition and was taken on board the helicopter to be flown home.
“All she wanted to do was play with a stone and a ball.”
Speaking to the Herald less than an hour after returning to base, Newton said Molly was resting among the search team under the table.
Newton said the moment of rescue was overwhelming
“My dad [Matt Newton] was crying, Georgina was crying … everyone’s extremely happy.”
She credited the rescue to the collective effort of strangers who rallied behind the search.
“It wouldn’t have been possible without everybody’s donations and help … It’s taken everyone to make it happen, and it’s really special.”
Molly’s owner, who escaped the fall without any broken bones but was “very, very bruised up”, was expected to be reunited with Molly later on Tuesday.
“We’ve never even met her before, so this will be the first time we meet the owner,” Newton said.
“It’s the best outcome that we could have ever imagined.”
Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist based in Dunedin. He joined the Herald in 2023.