Needle in a haystack (of needles)

Last night was a fretful night as myself and many of my other neighbours in the valley went searching for my next door neighbour who had disappeared somewhere on his farm during the course of the day.

As darkness drew closer, our search became more desperate. We split into three separate groups; myself and three others searching the north facing slopes facing the Mt Herbert and Mt Bradley massif, the other groups focusing on the south facing slopes below Mount Herbert and the Kaituna Spur. Unforgiving and steep country, it's testing in the light, let alone near darkness.

As our minds wandered over the possibilities of his fate - had he gone over a bluff, was he trapped under his quadbike, had he slipped into a creek - we heard two sounds of comfort; the rescue helicopter cresting the summit of Mount Herbert and the word we had been waiting for from the valley below, "FOUND!!!".

Remarkably, our neighbour had been pinned under his quadbike since around 3pm, and one of the searchers had reached him and pinpointed his location with a handheld GPS. As our party of four stood on the opposite slopes with torches switched off, we marvelled at the fantastic flying by the chopper pilot as he negotiated the steep craggy terrain to find a landing spot on a flat spot, high on the ridge above the casualty and his rescuers. Lights from the quadbikes started moving towards the chopper; the helicopter unable to get closer to them due the steep ground it was up to them to make their way to the awaiting paramedics.

Our party headed back to the valley floor, stil unsure of what the fate of the injured was. The tension was relieved as we were briefed by the other rescue parties; his injuries seemed limited to his pelvis - itself not a great injury - but we were relieved as we knew it could have been much, much worse.

This morning just as I left my neighbour's wife called to let me know that all X-rays and ultrasounds were clear, but they want to keep an eye on his hip. All in all great news. He's a very lucky man.

My Blip show's my muddy boots and trouser bottoms after last nights exertions, shot just before midnight when I got home. I'm pleased I managed to fit a blip in - it was a heck of a busy day...