\u201cHe had probably fallen maybe 25m, and then he managed to climb back up about 10m \u2013 so he was about 15m down and couldn\u2019t get up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nesbit said a woman from a nearby house on Battery Rd called emergency services. <\/p>\n
Firefighters could just about see the older man from her house.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were semi-familiar with where he was because, about three or four weeks ago, we had a fire in the same location on the hill. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe ended up driving back right up the top to find the access to come down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man lives on Chaucer Rd North. His wife, who was home at the time, was unaware he had fallen, but he was able to talk to the Battery Rd neighbours at the foot of the hill.<\/p>\n
One told Hawke\u2019s Bay Today the man asked her neighbour if she could contact his wife, and she was about to do so when the rescuers arrived, assessed the situation and decided the best approach was from the top.<\/p>\n
Nesbit said the man\u2019s wife \u201csort of didn\u2019t realise that he had disappeared or fallen down there until we started walking through their property to find access\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo she was just blissfully unaware, just thought he was still out there doing his gardening,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Nesbit said it looked as though a bit of dirt had given way and he \u201ctumbled down\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we figured out where he was … we set up all our specialist lines gear.\u201d<\/p>\n
It took about 15 minutes to reach the man.<\/p>\n
The rescue taking place at Hospital Hill in Napier. Photo \/ New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to cut a bunch of trees and branches out of the way as we went down to clear a path because he had obviously tumbled through them, and our lines to bring him back up needed a clear path.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rescuer had to navigate a vertical drop of 10m to 12m before descending on a steep angle for the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time the rescuer stood somewhere or put his feet, there was crumbly dirt coming out from underneath him.\u201d<\/p>\n
With residents watching from the northern side of Battery Rd, near the end of Campbell St, the firefighter reached the man, secured him in a harness, and both were hauled back to the top.<\/p>\n
Firefighters say it looked as though a little bit of dirt had given way and the man \u201ctumbled down\u201d. Photo \/ New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union<\/p>\n
The man had been able to tell the neighbours below that he was not injured, and Nesbit said the gardener had only a few cuts and bruises.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is very, very lucky; it could have easily gone a lot worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Battery Rd resident said: \u201cI\u2019m surprised he didn\u2019t hurt himself more.\u201d <\/p>\n
Such rescues were more common at sites such as Te Mata Peak, rather than on Napier Hill, Nesbit said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are specialist skills that we have in Hawke\u2019s Bay, and we are always working to keep on top of them, and it was a successful outcome and a very well-done job.\u201d <\/p>\n
Michaela Gower joined Hawke\u2019s Bay Today in 2023 and is based in the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke\u2019s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe had probably fallen maybe 25m, and then he managed to climb back up about 10m \u2013 so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[654,74,13990,1559,276156,226833,6097,15974,13989,7572,8597,29190,24387,27501,5838,31037,1345,5158,3607,111,43,139,69,8527,18560,10710,1314,1321,48077,61,6306,6123,1299],"class_list":["post-567489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-25m","tag-after","tag-below","tag-called","tag-cliffface","tag-cries","tag-down","tag-emergency","tag-fell","tag-firefighters","tag-gardener","tag-gardening","tag-gear","tag-heard","tag-help","tag-hill","tag-home","tag-man","tag-napier","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rescue","tag-rescued","tag-resident","tag-road","tag-services","tag-specialist","tag-to","tag-use","tag-while","tag-who"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567489","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=567489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}