Teen tells of 30m fall: "It was like a dream"

A TEENAGER at a birthday party in the remote Mangatiti Valley north of Raetihi fell 30m down a cliff and had to be rescued by a helicopter on Saturday.
Nikki Galbraith was running along a disused road behind a friend leading a horse when her ankle twisted and she fell sideways down the steep bank.
Her fall was broken by some trees, and then the bank became cliff-like.
"It felt like a dream," the 14-year-old said.
She landed on rocks beside the Mangatiti Stream, and wasn't sure whether she then lost consciousness.
None of the other five girls at the party saw her fall, but they heard her screams afterward. Two of them found a less steep way to get to her, down a "slippery back" ? a grassed over former slip site. They helped her to stand, but she screamed with pain and fell down again.
They then galloped off to get helped, and returned with the older brother of one.
He kept Nikki warm and talking while his mother drove her four wheel farm bike 4km to the nearest place with cellphone reception and rang Nikki's mother.
She also rang for a rescue helicopter.
Nikki's mum, Ashley Baker, thought unmentionable things as she drove to find her daughter. She arrived about 10 minutes before the Lion Foundation Rescue Helicopter, which came from Taupo because the Palmerston North chopper was busy.
Nikki was trembling uncontrollably and was given morphine. She was thought to have fractures to her hip, leg and ribs. She was put on a stretcher and, with a St John staffer, winched out of the streambed and up on to flat ground. From there she could be loaded into the helicopter with her mother for the 25-minute flight to Wanganui Hospital.
On the way south crew members watched for any sign of the helicopter carrying Michael Erceg, which has been missing for more than a week.
At the hospital Nikki was X-rayed for broken bones and ultrasound scanned for kidney damage. Nothing more serious than extensive bruising and a chipped tooth was found. She was due to walk out of hospital today, taking a pair of crutches on loan for a fortnight.
"She must have bounced," her mother said.
She spent two nights in hospital, just because her farm home, 45 minutes' drive from Raetihi, was so remote that any unexpected complications would be better dealt with in town.
Yesterday afternoon she wasn't sure whether her fall and dramatic rescue had ruined her 12-year-old friend's birthday party.
"I told them to still do the bonfire," she said.