Victim tells of nights in bush after crash [+audio]

Marion Hounsome describes her ordeal to reporters yesterday from her hospital bed in Greymouth. Picture / Simon Baker

A multiple sclerosis sufferer trapped with her elderly mother in thick West Coast bush for almost two days feared they would be stranded out in the open after abandoning their vehicle in a fruitless bid for freedom.

Christchurch singing teacher Marion Hounsome, 40, was showing off the sights of the South Island to her mother Glenys, 71, visiting from Britain, when their eight-seater van failed to take a sharp bend and rolled down steep hillside near Fox Glacier on Sunday.

The pair were rescued yesterday after two Australian tourists, who had stopped to take photographs, heard the women's voices and raised the alarm.

"I really thought I was doing everything right, but obviously I didn't. And we just went over the edge and the car turned over, I don't know how many times, and just landed on its roof," Marion Hounsome said from her Greymouth hospital bed yesterday.

"I just thought about my mum, and said 'Oh, Mum, are you all right?' And she said, 'Yes'."

The pair were able to get out of the upturned vehicle, but they could not climb back up the hill or attract the attention of passing motorists above.

"When I realised that nobody could see us and nobody was hearing us, that's when I got more and more worried," said Ms Hounsome, who uses a crutch to help her to walk short distances and a wheelchair for longer stretches.

"I was getting concerned and I realised it was because we were totally invisible. I just told all my friends we would be away for about six days. So the earliest anyone would have even thought about [searching] was this coming Friday."

They slept for 10 minutes at a time, ate fruit and drank water and Pepsi they had with them, and tried to stay warm in the van.

After two long nights, yesterday morning they decided to head downhill in the hope there would be a creek at the bottom that would lead to a road.

"The good thing about it being downhill was that we could slide down the hill on our backsides, when neither of us was really up to walking very far.

"Unfortunately, where we thought it was the bottom of the hill, it turned out not to be.

"There was a whole load after that. It was at that point that we just sat down to have a bit of a break and think about what we were going to do next, because I was really worried at this point."

They were contemplating having to sleep in the open because they could not get back to the van when Ms Hounsome heard a car door slam.

Australian tourists had stopped nearby to take a photograph.

"I just started shouting ... and somebody answered me. I said, 'Please just phone the emergency services.' They were wonderful people."

Another motorist then stopped and climbed down to the pair and stayed with them until a helicopter arrived to winch the exhausted women out.

"I feel just so relieved to be out of where we were," Ms Hounsome said.

She said the nights were long and cold. They were able to move around inside the van, but the battery went flat on Sunday after repeatedly using the car horn.

Ms Hounsome suffered only cuts and bruises.

Her mother had been annoyed her knee kept giving way "and apparently it was cracked, so that would be why".

Both were staying overnight at Greymouth's Grey Base Hospital.

They looked forward to getting back to Christchurch to have a rest.

Fox Glacier firefighter Abyee Williams, one of four firefighters who helped rescue the pair, said they had done everything right.

"It was extremely steep terrain," she said. "Both those ladies did extremely well. Both were perky and smiling to see us.

"I take my hat off to both of them."

The women had felt a series of earthquakes that rattled the area on Monday night but were not sure what the shaking was.

"They just thought it was the car settling. They wouldn't have known, especially being upside down on a hillside."

St John spokeswoman Amy McDermott said the women had moderate injuries when found, but were suffering mainly from cold and dehydration.

"They are relatively well, considering," she said.

- Additional reporting by Juliet Rowan