When Sunset Grove Primary's Headteacher, Bree Ashworth goes to help teacher Jenny Dench in her classroom she is attacked by an intruder. The attacker escapes and Bree is taken to hospital. Her husband Colin arrives and tells her he is leaving to move from London with his mistress Linda Rouke.
Bree has bookings to attend a reading conference in New Zealand over that country's summer vacation. With double tickets bought and Colin gone, she invites Jenny to come with her.
In New Zealand, the small commuter aeroplane they fly in crashes in thick bush country. The pilot is killed and Jenny and Bree try to survive by themselves. However, all is not lost, for a tramper in the bush, Ray Barnett and his dog, Pattie find them.
Police in England tell Colin, Bree has been involved in an air crash and is missing. Colin abandons his partner and flies out to New Zealand but his intentions are not those one would expect from a worried husband....
Bree wiped her eyes, hugged the dog and gazed around. She was in the middle of a pile of loose debris but a little above her there was a grass knob where a couple of trees grew. One was the bushy type they'd walked through all day and the other was a tall multi-branched palm tree that Ray had talked about when they were back at the hut. It had the unique name of cabbage tree.
Her thoughts went from the cabbage tree back to her friends. She stared down but could not see them in the deepening shadows. "Come on, Pattie, we'll go up to that knob and you can relax. A big machine is flying in to rescue us all." She laughed at her effort to explain things to a dog.
The outcrop provided a little shelter but a breeze had risen. Bree shivered. Her thin clothes offered no warmth and now that she'd stopped moving, a chill crept through her body. Her ribs began to throb. Bree grimaced. Other parts of her body hurt, too. Her face, arms and leg tops burned and there was a distinct line between the white skin beneath her blouse and the bright red skin over the rest of her body. Her legs and arms were scratched and she knew the blisters on her feet had enlarged. But that didn't matter. Help was on its way and that more than compensated for a few physical ailments.
As the blue sky turned to purple, Pattie cocked her ears up and whined. Suddenly, Bree saw flashing navigation lights and heard a thump of beating rotors. A black dot materialized between the lights, the noise became louder…and there it was. A helicopter was heading up the valley!
"Oh my God!" Bree screamed. She climbed to the outer edge of the knob and waved frantically.
The craft slowed, hovered and turned towards her. "Get Ray first!" she screamed, then realized her words were useless. She clung to a branch and just stared.
The purple, green and white helicopter with Square Edge Rescue painted along the fuselage hovered in. Dust blew everywhere. Bree grabbed Pattie and watched as a man in an orange life jacket descended from the craft.
"Hi," he shouted. "I'm Tom. I believe you'd like a lift?"
Bree didn't know whether to laugh or cry so merely nodded.
Excerpt
The flight was quite unlike any Bree and Jenny had been on before. In an aeroplane the size of a station wagon, and with the wing above them, they had a tremendous view of the country below. It was rugged, steep and covered in thick bush, as Vince called the forest below. Bree sat in the front beside the pilot while Jenny sat in the seat behind.
"We'll be over pine forests soon," Vince said above the murmur of the engine. "Then it's Lake Taupo and the central high country. I'm afraid there's a northerly storm coming in so the mountains may be hidden."
The three volcanoes were visible, though, and still had snow on their shady southern slopes. The wide, twin-peaked Mount Ruapehu towered above the conical shaped Mount Ngaurahoe and smaller Mount Tongariro, while the surrounding land of light brown tussock had a black line cut diagonally across it.
"The Desert Road," Vince said. "Ruapehu, that biggest mountain, is two thousand seven hundred metres high. It's the largest in the North Island."
"Impressive," Jenny replied as she gazed out the window. "Those clouds behind it sure look black, though."
"The storm's coming in quite quickly," Vince replied. "We should be all right, though. We're moving southeast away from it. There's more high country for a while, then you'll see the Manawatu Plains."
The sky behind the three mountains was inky black, and one misty section showed where a downpour covered the landscape.
"Oh my," Bree muttered as the whole northern sky split open in white sheet lightning. Seconds later, thunder rumbled and the Cessna buffeted. Bree grinned at Jenny, who appeared a picture of tranquillity. Her own stomach felt queasy and she concentrated on looking straight ahead through the spinning propeller.
The sky darkened and more sheet lightning cut across the sky in increasing intensity. The Cessna vibrated with each sound. Bree now felt quite ill and reached for the security of a paper bag. Even Jenny had paled a little, but the nonchalant pilot took it in his stride. He reached for his radio, changed frequencies, and a different voice came through the speakers.
"The great divide," he explained. "We're in the central air control district. There's a radar station east of Palmerston North. They're just telling us we're on their scope." He grinned. "Half an hour and we'll be there."
Bree braved a look out a side window where thickly forested hills poked out of misty rain clouds. Visibility dropped and the instruments glowed in semi-darkness. Suddenly, hail hit their aeroplane - pelting stones of ice that drowned the engine noise. It lasted for two minutes or so, and then disappeared as quickly as it came. More lightning flashed but it was behind them, and a ray of sunlight pierced the clouds in the east.
"Almost through," Vince said
Bree caught Jenny's eyes and smiled. She hadn't vomited and her stomach felt as if it could now handle the vibrations. Away ahead, the clouds broke, and green, flat land came into view. This gave her confidence. She glanced at her watch, sighed and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. Their arrival time was twenty minutes away. Thank God they were almost there.
The crack sounded like one of those tiny firecrackers. It was muffled but ominous. The engine screamed of tearing metal, spluttered and stopped. The pilot frowned, adjusted some controls and the engine roared to life. However, it howled like a chainsaw gone wrong and cut out again. Everything shuddered and the aeroplane slipped sideways. Dials in front of the pilot competed with a siren and flashing red light for attention.
Jenny gasped and Bree clasped her seat belt and stared at the sky ahead. Vince swore, reached out and pulled a switch. The engine clanged once more, but wouldn't start.
"What is it?" Bree shouted. Her voice reflected the terror in her mind.
"I reckon a piston's seized," Vince replied, his own voice calm. "I'm trying to isolate it. It could be the fuel line. If we...." There was a clink and a misty vapour poured from the engine "Bugger," Vince swore. "The fuel pipe's broken away. That's aviation fuel pouring out." He pressed the radio transmission button. "Mayday! Mayday! West Central Air Cessna ZK VPB has lost engine power. Our position is...."
Bree stared at Jenny, Vince's voice fading to the background. The windshield was splattered with oil and the distinct smell of aviation fuel entered the cockpit. Below, thick hills of forest poked out of the misty clouds. It appeared as if they were suspended in the air and the trees were rushing towards them.
"Can you talk to the air control," Vince shouted at Bree. "I need to bring the nose up."
Bree nodded, clamped the spare headphones on and spoke. "This is the Cessna. I'm a passenger. Vince is trying to pull the nose up."
"Central Air Control. Cessna ZK VPB. Can we have more details, please?"
Bree swallowed and pressed the red transmit button. In a voice far calmer than she felt she described what happened.
"And your name, Madam?" the voice cut in.
"Bree Ashworth."
"Good, Bree," the voice said. "Has Vince started the motor?"
"No," Bree replied. "The windshield is covered in oil."
"Has Vince pulled the nose up?" The controller's calm voice continued.
Bree glanced up "Yes. Our nose is up but the propeller has almost stopped turning. We appear to be level." She described everything, while the pilot wrestled with the controls and the Cessna's wings straightened.
Seconds that seemed like eternity passed before Vince touched her arm and smiled in appreciation. "I've stopped the dive and can talk on the radio now," he said and immediately began to read out technical data of their position, rate of descent and weather conditions. "We have five minutes at the most," he reported. "...Steep terrain all around. I'm heading into a valley. There's fog below and the ground view is obstructed..."
Bree glanced back at Jenny's pale face. "We'll make it," she whispered.
Jenny nodded and attempted a smile. "We swam on New Year's Day, Bree." Her voice was soft.
"Yes, we did. And we'll go back for more before we leave to go home..."
Jenny grimaced and pulled her seat belt tighter.
Beside them, clouds blurred past. Rain mixed with the fuel on the windscreen to make lines of smudged rainbow colours.
"Hang on!' Vince said in an emotionless voice. "We're going in."
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