Tourists rescued from river

Four German freedom campers lost thousands of dollars worth of belongings after their van was caught in a flash flood.

Lucia Frank, Nina Priem, Sophie Heynen and Lena Specht had parked their van at the side of The Lake Rd near Coes Ford, south of Christchurch, just after 10pm on Wednesday.

Specht said there was no sign of water and it was not raining when they parked up ready for a good night’s sleep. They woke just after 2am yesterday to the sound of water rapidly pouring through the doors of the van.

‘‘We panicked a bit, we couldn’t see anything it was so dark. We tried to drive and the car started floating,’’ she said.

It was believed a surge of water from mountains to the west had flooded the Selwyn River at Coes Ford, which then flooded the road the van was parked on.

‘‘We could barely open the doors. It was very very scary,’’ Specht said.

The women managed to open the back door and sat on the roof of the van to wait for help.

‘‘We were shivering and crying . . . It was freezing when we sat up on the roof out of the water; it was not a nice experience,’’ she said. ‘‘We’re quite lucky we’re safe and no-one was hurt and we just lost material things that can be replaced but it’s still hard. I think we just have to make the best of it.’’

Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman Rewai Grace said fire crews from Leeston, Lincoln and Southbridge helped get the tourists back on dry ground.

The women had been travelling New Zealand since November and had planned to stay until April, but that now depended on their insurance claim.