A German backpacker who got \u2018\u2018lucky in an unlucky situation\u2019\u2019 says she is not a stupid tourist.<\/p>\n
German backpacker Marie Zessin, 20, had an adventure and a-half in a planned trip on Lake Wakatipu on Monday.<\/p>\n
Her paddle broke, she got soaking wet, almost got hypothermia and later collapsed on the shore.<\/p>\n
In between all that drama, she had time to take a few videos and selfies.<\/p>\n
A volunteer firefighter and part-time model in northern Germany, she booked herself a night in a hut on Pigeon Island, near the top end of Lake Wakatipu.<\/p>\n
The plan was to get in her small inflatable boat, paddle out to the island, spend the night there and then return the next day.<\/p>\n
She packed her raft \u2014 bought for $100 on social media \u2014 picked up a lifejacket she found \u2018\u2018hanging in the garage\u2019\u2019 and headed off.<\/p>\n
About halfway to the island, one of her paddles broke.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I immediately put the other one away and tried paddling with my hands, and I was leaning over the front of the boat to catch the other one,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018But the current was too strong and it just drifted away. So I tried to just use the one. That didn\u2019t work. I had to kneel with the one paddle and that just made my boat start spinning, because the waves were pretty high as well.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
She then tried a \u2018\u2018butterfly-like swimming motion\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I was half on the boat, but my arms were, like, fully in the water. I was just a little panicky as well, because I wasn\u2019t really moving forward the way I planned. And then, yeah, I took some videos as well, because I just wanted to organise my thoughts.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The adrenaline was flowing, but her firefighting experience helped keep her calm, she said.<\/p>\n
After about an hour, and with the help of the current, she made it to shore.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I dragged my boat and my stuff on shore, and then I passed out pretty much immediately. I think it was just from the shock and everything was cold and wet as well. And I was just really out of breath.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
She woke up, not knowing how long she had been unconscious.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I just knew I needed to act pretty quickly so that I didn\u2019t get hypothermia or anything like that. I was wearing five layers, really heavy hiking boots as well, and I was fully soaked.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
She managed to find her way to the Glenorchy road, wading through a waterway, which was up to her hips at times.<\/p>\n
But she was a long way from her car. Fortune then favoured her as a passing motorist stopped, helped her retrieve her boat and took her back to her car.<\/p>\n
Looking back, she said she did not allow herself to even think how bad her situation was.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I was just trying to stay rational and I was just telling myself even if nothing works, I\u2019ll eventually just be swept on to shore.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018My main focus was really just trying to keep the boat stable and not let any more water in.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
It was getting late in the afternoon and light was running out.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I just tried to not think of what happens if I can\u2019t get out of this situation. I was really just trying to stay focused on, you know, what\u2019s my best possibility to get out of this.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I\u2019m just really lucky that I was lucky in an unlucky situation kind of.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I don\u2019t want to come across as, like, a stupid tourist. I did plan ahead. I had all the equipment I needed. I had a life vest.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A German backpacker who got \u2018\u2018lucky in an unlucky situation\u2019\u2019 says she is not a stupid tourist. German…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-448445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}