A 15-year-old boy's death-defying plunge from the top storey of an apartment block was the latest in a string of tragic events for King's College pupils.
Headmaster Bradley Fenner said the year 10 pupil's hospitalisation after falling 50m from his family's 16th-floor Manukau apartment capped a "horrific" year of incidents for the school.
Three pupils from the private college in Otahuhu have died since February.
But he said the school was trying to look on the bright side, and staff and pupils were "delighted" at the pupil's miracle escape.
The teenager's parents and doctors could barely believe it when he began walking in Middlemore Hospital yesterday.
He was admitted on Thursday night with several broken bones, a gashed leg and internal injuries after the unexplained fall from Proximity Apartments on Amersham Ave.
He will be released from hospital on Friday, and is expected to make a full recovery.
The boy dropped 14 storeys from the apartment balcony on the corner of the complex.
After a fall of three seconds he hit the steel roof of the car park below at an estimated 100kmh.
The roof broke his fall and probably saved his life, said witnesses.
It is likely that he fell feet-first, due to the nature of his injuries.
He smashed through the roof, cladding, and metal webbing before dropping another two storeys to a concrete floor.
Building manager Jason Epps-Eades said the boy's luck became even more apparent when the site of impact was viewed from above - he fell into the middle of long-run roofing, in a spot which would provide the most cushioning.
He also missed all of the concrete girders holding the roof up.
The cause of the fall is not known.
Counties Manukau police inspected the balcony and were satisfied it was safe.
A spokeswoman said police were taking no further action.
The chest-high balcony was made of glass, topped by a steel pipe which was fixed to the apartment's walls.
Medical experts called the teenager's survival a miracle.
University of Otago associate professor Neil Thomson in the physics department said a person falling from 45m to 50m would reach a speed of 100kmh by the time they struck the ground.
Coming to rest over 5m meant the impact would have been about 10 times the force of gravity - twice as strong as slamming on the brakes in a Formula One car at full speed.
"If someone came to rest over a shorter space, against a harder surface, they would have almost no chance of surviving," he said.
