‘We showed what southern women are made of ’
A group of friends planned a rugged tramp of Stewart Island, but it almost ended in disaster. They share their story with Ronnie Short.
Clinging to flange-holes in the overturned pontoon boat, Tracey Osborne’s overwhelming thought was, ‘‘I just have to do it’’. So she let go and, still wearing tramping boots, swam to save her friend Lynne Johnston who was unconscious and drifting further away from the boat with every large wave.
The remaining three women, a Swedish male tourist and the boat’s skipper watched as Osborne struck out.
Clinging to the 7.5m-long vessel’s upturned rim in a tumultuous sea with waves whipped up to 3 metres high by 35 to 50 knot winds, it is something of a miracle that they survived. The water was only 9 degrees Celsius and the seven people in the water were immersed for close to an hour.
It was Thursday, September 12. Four Golden Bay women – Johnston, Osborne, Elaine Crombie and Kathy Hindmarsh plus a friend from Diamond Harbour, Jo Randall, had been picked up by water taxi. But the vessel capsized as they were crossing Paterson Inlet on Stewart Island. The incident is subject to a Transport Accident Investigation Commission investigation.
The five friends started their journey four days earlier, meeting up with Randall at Christchurch. They flew to Invercargill where they boarded a six-seater plane that landed them on the beach at Mason Bay on the western side of Stewart Island. They spent two nights there at the historic Kilbride homestead.
It was Johnston’s birthday so they’d brought a feast to celebrate – including venison steaks and chocolate cake. It was a time to celebrate. Johnston had wanted to revisit the island having been there with Osborne and Randall two years before.
On the third day, the women walked three hours along Mason Bay to stay in a DOC hut for the night hoping again to see kiwi.
There they met Tommy Oksanen, a 38-year-old Swedish tourist who had walked from Freshwater Hut, which is where the women set off for the next day. The five-hour walk cuts through low-lying wetlands and comprises narrow boardwalks with muddy water either side.
After a really windy night at the hut, they were all picked up by the water taxi, Henerata, the next day at 1pm and the skipper warned them that it was going to be a rough ride.
Johnston remembers: ‘‘We came out of the river mouth, skirted along the edge of the inlet and then began tracking across the middle.’’
Hindmarsh recalls what it looked like from the boat. ‘‘The sea looked white and choppy – then got steep and high.’’
Randall laughs: ‘‘We were surfing by then!’’
Although a non-swimmer, Johnston didn’t feel nervous, nor did Hindmarsh, who felt confident in both skipper and boat. But Crombie didn’t feel so sure when she noticed what looked like grey fog up ahead.
Suddenly the nose of the boat went down, and the whole vessel twisted and turned onto its side. The skipper grabbed the radio and managed just one mayday call as the boat overturned.
‘As soon asI got into the water, I expelled all the air in my lungs and started gulping seawater. Then I blacked out.’ LYNNE JOHNSTON
From there things became chaotic. Johnston and Randall managed to remain standing and were holding on inside the cabin, but Hindmarsh and Crombie were thrown upside down underneath bodies and backpacks. Crombie recalls yelling, ‘‘Get off me!’’ in a panic, as water began seeping into the cabin.
The skipper told them they had to get out and to follow him. But as he pushed open the cabin doors he was carried back by the onrush of water. Oksanen managed to get out. Crombie tried but failed, and became disoriented underwater. She came back up with lungs bursting, to a pocket of air inside the cabin and shouted, ‘‘We’ve gotta get outta here!’’
Osborne told everyone to keep calm but, as Johnston remembers, ‘‘confusion reigned’’. Petrol fumes filled the air.
Reappearing via the forward hatch on the upside-down bow of the boat, the skipper told them: ‘‘We need to go out through the hatch. When you come up, grab hold of the side of the boat.’’ He remained there, giving each woman the needed push to get through the hatch.
Johnston was petrified, ‘‘I can’t do that.’’ Osborne reassured her, ‘‘I’ll be there when you come up.’’
After Osborne, Randall dived, followed by Hindmarsh – leaving Crombie and Johnston. ‘‘I can’t do it,’’ repeated Johnston, to which Crombie replied, ‘‘I’m not going until you go’’. So Johnston took a huge breath and the skipper gave her a push. But Johnston recalls, ‘‘As soon as I got into the water, I expelled all the air in my lungs and started gulping seawater. Then I blacked out.’’
‘‘Lynne came up, but not next to the boat,’’ Hindmarsh says. ‘‘I made a lunge for her, but she was too far away. ‘We’ve lost her’, I shouted to Jo’’.
Johnston was floating away on her back, her parka jacket had developed an air pocket which kept her afloat. ‘‘I normally sink like a stone,’’ she says.
Osborne made a split-second decision to let go of the boat and swim to Johnston. ‘‘I knew I could get to her, but I wasn’t sure I could make it back. I knew Lynne had no choice and how terrified she would be in the water – her absolutely worst nightmare.’’
Hindmarsh thinks Johnston