After factoring in the distance, winds and currents, she launched her inflatable boat around 4pm.<\/p>\n
Marie Zessin had planned an overnight solo adventure to Pigeon Island. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
\u201cI was listening to my podcast about halfway between the mainland and the island, then all of a sudden I just didn\u2019t feel the resistance anymore,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy right paddle actually broke, like, I just saw the yellow part of the paddle drifting away and immediately I thought, \u2018Oh my God, what do I do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Zessin first tried paddling with the remaining oar, kneeling in the inflatable boat and switching sides.<\/p>\n
But metre-high waves and strong currents spun the boat in circles and began flooding the vessel, soaking her clothes, sleeping bag and food.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter about 10 minutes I was completely soaked,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was wearing four layers of clothing and I was scared of getting hypothermia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marie Zessin said she purchased her inflatable boat on Facebook Marketplace and had taken it out on the lake multiple times. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Believing she was closer to Pigeon Island than the mainland, Zessin spent another 20 minutes trying to reach shore before realising the current was dragging her further away.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that point I was like, \u2018Okay, I\u2019ll just try to get to any shore at all\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
A confident swimmer, long-distance runner and a volunteer firefighter back in Germany, Zissen said she refused to let herself dwell on the possibility that she could die.<\/p>\n
Instead, she started recording videos on her phone to keep herself calm.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helped me organise my mind because I could be like, okay, this is the situation, these are my options.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helped me not catastrophise too much and get into panic mode.\u201d<\/p>\n
After an hour battling the lake, Zessin managed to drag herself and the boat ashore before passing out from exhaustion and shock.<\/p>\n
Marie Zessin became stranded on Lake Wakatipu after her paddle broke. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
When she regained consciousness, she said she was still freezing, soaked and stranded far from the road.<\/p>\n
She abandoned her belongings and staggered through dense bush and a freezing river before reaching a main road about 15 minutes later.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was there fully wet, crying in my life vest with branches in my hair trying to wave cars down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEventually, one guy turned around and I just ran to him still panicky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zissen described the stranger, Ricardo, as a \u201chero\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t think twice about coming down to the river with me to get my stuff and he didn\u2019t expect anything in return,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so pure-hearted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zessin said Ricardo returned with her through bush to retrieve her belongings before driving her back to her car, which she had left parked in the bush.<\/p>\n
She said she hopes he will reach out so she can buy him a restaurant voucher.<\/p>\n
She also said she has a warning for others planning solo adventures: \u201cAlways double-check your equipment\u201d.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Coastguard told the Herald people heading out on the water should take forms of communication with them, ideally an Epirb, VHF radio and a phone in a waterproof case.<\/p>\n
Boaties are also advised to always wear a lifejacket, check the marine forecast and tell someone where they are heading and what time they plan to return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After factoring in the distance, winds and currents, she launched her inflatable boat around 4pm. Marie Zessin had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,6743,5532,34596,48803,4726,71,49753,146142,78,18280,13207,111,43,139,69,90,2833,31959,16792,20930,697,18560,17162,312,12507,1960,17489,8538,229444,1316],"class_list":["post-450811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-became","tag-boat","tag-calm","tag-disaster","tag-ends","tag-from","tag-german","tag-icy","tag-in","tag-inflatable","tag-lake","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-ordeal","tag-outing","tag-phone","tag-queenstown","tag-recording","tag-rescued","tag-saved","tag-says","tag-stranded","tag-thinking","tag-tourist","tag-videos","tag-wakatipu","tag-when"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450811","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=450811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}