Year in review: New Zealand's incredible survival stories of 2019

Lester Stevens, John Lambeth and Andrew Hefford. Photo / File

Every year remarkable stories of survival capture the attention of the nation. Today the Herald looks back at three of those stories from 2019. Chelsea Boyle reports.

German tourist Arne Murke cleverly fashioned a makeshift lifejacket out of a pair jeans when he found himself in trouble off the Gisborne coast on March 6.

He had been sailing down the coastline with his brother in rough conditions, when a loose mainsheet caused the boom to unexpectedly swing knocking him overboard.

"While I was in the water I was just thinking, I can't leave my daughter behind without a father. That was the biggest motivation," he previously told the Herald on Sunday.

He turned his jeans into a life-saving buoyancy aide by using a technique employed by Navy Seals.

"The water was breaking over me, and it was getting cold. My legs started to shake. I needed to re-inflate the jeans because they lost a little bit of air, they were twisted somehow."

After about three and a half hours in the water, Murke was plucked from the water by the Hawke's Bay Rescue helicopter.

German Tourist Arne Murke. Photo / File

Three orange-clad figures on the beach of Auckland Islands - one extraordinary sight.

It marked the miraculous survival of Winchman Lester Stevens, pilot Andrew "Heff" Hefford and St John paramedic John Lambeth after a helicopter crash 465km south of New Zealand.

Lambeth and Hefford would later tell a media stand-up of a few seconds of initial panic but they credited their training for their escape.

"Comparatively, my experience was very relaxed," Stevens said prompting laughs in the room.

"I can't recall anything until I woke up on my back in the water, someone was saying something about swimming..."

The downed chopper sank nose first, leaving the trio to swim to shore where they clambered over kelp and rocks to hunker down on the island.

The trio were discovered the next morning by Southern Lakes Helicopters owner Sir Richard 'Hannibal' Hayes.

Hefford said they did not doubt they would be rescued but he "never thought I would get a hug from my boss".

Lester Stevens, John Lambeth and Andrew Hefford. Photo / File

Kiwi expat Forfar Petrie had just remarked how good sailing conditions were when he heard the loud shuddering crunch coming from the yacht's struggling mast.

Having suffered rigging damage on June 12 the once Tonga-bound vessel was forced to turn back towards New Zealand.

Low on fuel and limping across the Pacific Ocean with torn rigging, his crew hung tough for three days while their mast hung by a thread.

"When it happens, you don't have time to be frightened or fragile," he previously told the Herald.

Battling against squalls, they were within 90km of Great Barrier Island when their diesel ran out and their mast finally gave.

The group were forced to abandon their 14m yacht in heavy seas and were airlifted to safety.

Emergency personnel were drawn towards them with accuracy because the group had tethered the yacht's emergency locator beacon to the life raft.

Rescuers credited the group as being well-prepared.

Forfar and Sally Petrie on board their yacht Squander. Photo / File

READ LAST YEAR'S SERIES ON INCREDIBLE SURVIVALS

• Jo Morgan's miraculous escape from the avalanche that killed two
• Lost at sea: Napier surfer Shon Turfrey's seven-hour ordeal
• Claire Nelson's fight for survival in the desert: 'The heat was torturous'
• Broadcaster Rod Vaughan's miracle flight: Falling from the sky
• Reporter Derek Cheng's fall on Clyde Minaret