A woman prayed and sang hymns to keep herself calm as she sat trapped inside an upturned car for about 15 minutes as floodwaters slowly filled her vehicle.
She had just plunged about 20m into a chasm on the washed-out Ngapouri Rd in Waiotapu, south of Rotorua, on Wednesday night.
Her vehicle was sent sailing down the flooded stream before coming to rest upside down about 80m from the road.
Her husband, who has asked that he and his wife not be identified, had been travelling in the vehicle behind, but didn’t realise he had been following his wife.
The woman eventually twisted and turned her body enough to make it out of the car alive – a feat that has been described as a miracle.
Local farmers rushed to her aid after hearing the cries for help.
Her husband told the Rotorua Daily Post the couple had been at work in Rotorua at different times during the day and had met friends that evening before travelling home separately to their lifestyle block south of Rotorua about 10pm.
He was not aware at the time his wife was driving their son’s vehicle and was in front of him.
He said they had lived there for 25 years and all Ngapouri Rd locals knew to take the piece of road approaching the culvert at a slower speed.
In his opinion: “It’s a poorly constructed piece of road and if you hit it too hard, you bottom out your shocks, so you always slow down.”
Driving along, he could suddenly see the chasm thanks to the headlights of the car in front.
And then: “I just saw the car disappear.”
He called 111 and asked for fire, ambulance and police to come because he thought it would be bad.
“I could hear the screaming and could see in the distance the car rolling over and over again.
“Because of the roar of the water, I didn’t realise it was my wife.”
While he stood helplessly at the chasm’s edge trying to raise the alarm, he called his daughter, who lives on the same property on Ngapouri Rd.
“I asked her if Mum was home yet and she said no.”
His daughter then informed him his wife had taken their son’s car that day.
“At that point, I knew it was her.”
He paused when he recounted how he felt next.
“I couldn’t hear any screaming anymore ... I thought she was gone.”
He thanked emergency services, neighbours Lynda Sutton and Angus Ravenwood as well as his son-in-law, who rushed to his wife’s aid.
They used a side-by-side vehicle to get her to a farm track where another neighbour, who only wanted to be known as Nick, transported her up the rugged track to the ambulance.
He said most of all, he was so proud of his wife.
“I can’t believe she made it out alive.”
He said it was miraculous his wife escaped the vehicle with no cuts or broken bones.
She had cracked ribs from the seatbelt and was being kept in the hospital for a few days to manage her pain and to rest.
“She talked about the fears and things that went through her mind ... she knew I was travelling behind her and she thought I had gone over too.”
He said she did everything perfectly to remain calm.
“She prayed and sang hymns to calm herself ... We are just so grateful to God for his goodness to us. For some reason, he has granted us some more time together.”
He said the horrifying incident had made him realise how fragile life was, and it made him reflect on the “remarkable” woman he was married to.
“I’m just so proud of all the things she has done.”
Sutton said she and her partner, Ravenwood, heard shouting and rushed outside to help.
Sutton said she held a spotlight as the woman’s son-in-law hooked his feet around the fencing to stabilise himself and leaned across to help her out of her car.
She said it was incredible the woman did not panic, because the floodwater was rushing through the vehicle.
The woman held her head up and had barely any space left in the car to breathe.
Nick said he was worried when he first arrived, describing the scene as “terrifying”.
“When I saw the two tyres sticking out of the water, I thought to myself, how does someone survive that?”
He said it was “miraculous” when he saw the woman getting out of the car.
“How is that even possible?”
The chasm appeared sometime on Wednesday night following downpours that triggered a MetService orange rain warning.
It has cut off road access to four farming properties.
Rotorua Lakes Council infrastructure and assets group manager Stavros Michael said residents had 4WD access in and out of the area.
Michael said the council had offered to help by reinstating temporary access and contractors were on standby if this needed to be done.
Michael said heavy rain in the area on Wednesday night overwhelmed the culvert under the road, undermining the road structure and causing it to collapse.
Concrete barriers were in place at the road closure and people were advised to stay away because the ground remained unstable, he said.
“We are already assessing the damage across the district caused by the weather event and will be investigating options for reinstating the culvert and road but can’t predict at this early stage what that will involve or how long repairs could take. It will be a big job that may also require geotechnical road stabilisation works.”
Michael said work that was done recently was on drains near the culvert, not on the culvert itself.
Michael said people were reminded to avoid travelling, particularly if Rotorua was impacted by Cyclone Vaianu this weekend.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.