''I owe my life to you.'' With those words, Elaine Carberry thanked three heroes honoured this week for their bravery.
Ms Carberry and her boss Kelly Hodder had faced death in a submerged car that crashed through a barrier in a freezing storm near Waimate.
The pair owe their lives not only to the three men but also to a builder's extension cord.
''You risked your lives to save myself and Kelly Hodder ... and I will forever be in your debt,'' Ms Carberry said in a letter to her rescuers, Nige Sandri, of Hawea Flat, and Waimate firefighters Graeme Jeffery and Andrew McKenzie.
The three men were this week awarded New Zealand Fire Service Commission citations - the commission's highest honour - for their courageous actions.
''Words cannot express how grateful and thankful I am towards you,'' Ms Carberry said.
''Since the crash I have had a beautiful baby girl called Cassie.
''This would not have happened if it was not for you men.''
Ms Carberry, from Ireland, was a 23-year-old farm worker for Ms Hodder, of Ikawai, on the day of the crash, June 21, last year.
The car overturned and became pinned upside down in a flooded stream at Elephant Hill Bridge on the Waimate-Kurow highway.
Yesterday, Mr Sandri told how an extension cord from the back of his builder's van became a lifeline for the two women presumed dead in the submerged car.
Mr Sandri (45), at the time a member of the Lake Hawea Volunteer Fire Brigade, and wife Janis had taken a ''window of opportunity'' when the Lindis Pass was briefly opened during a wintry southern blast to drive to Christchurch.
Their timing proved fateful when they came across the crash scene.
Despite being assured by bystanders the car's occupants had not survived, Mr Sandri decided ''best we have a look''.
After noticing car lights under the water and hearing muffled cries, he called to his wife to get him a rope from his van.
''She came back with an extension cord. I just had a bit of a giggle at that and I thought 'Oh well ... we'll run with that'.''
He checked emergency services had been called and summoned a farmer's tractor to extract the trapped car if necessary, before tying the cord to the bridge and lowering himself on to the car's underbody.
He was unable to see the women - who he quickly established had found an air pocket in the footwell of the car but were up to their necks in icy water - and could only shout to them over the roar of the stream, while trying unsuccessfully to find a way inside.
''They were freaking out at that stage. I spent a bit of time just reassuring them that someone was there for them and that I wasn't going to move and they seemed to just calm down with that.
''I was just putting myself in that position and it just must have been horrific. Upside down, pitch black, and frigid water ... desperately trying to get out.''
He stayed with the women for nearly half an hour until a fire appliance arrived.
Mr McKenzie and Mr Jeffery then entered the flooded stream and used a spreader, or jaws of life, to prise open two of the doors and free the women.
Mr Sandri said the women were blue when they came out of the water and it appeared ''touch and go'' whether they would survive.
He recalls Ms Hodder asking ''where is Nige?'' the moment she was rescued, before telling him ''You saved my life'', a moment he found particularly humbling.
Police at the scene said they were in no doubt the men's actions had saved the lives of the women, who were taken to Timaru Hospital and treated for hypothermia. Mr Sandri said the award, while totally unexpected, was a ''real honour''.
''Anybody would have done the same thing and I just happened to be Johnny-on-the-spot really ... In a uniform, not in a uniform, it doesn't matter. That's what firefighters do. Recalling the scene, Mr McKenzie said it was snowing when he arrived from Waimate.
''I looked over and thought 'oh they are gonners', and then Nige [Sandri] yelled out to me that there were two in the car and they're alive, just.''
Jumping into floodwaters, he yelled to Mr Sandri to grab hold before he was swept away.
''As I jumped across and waded through, he pulled me up to the car ... We probably didn't do things to protocol, but I'd say if we had've done it any other way they wouldn't be here,'' he said.
Both women were rescued from the vehicle within 13 minutes of the Waimate firefighters arriving.
More than 100 people were in attendance when the men were presented with citation awards by Fire Service Commissioner Wyatt Creech at the Waimate Fire Station on Monday night.
''To my mind, what transpired beneath Elephant Hill Bridge that winter's evening bears all the hallmarks of exemplary action,'' Mr Creech said.
Ms Hodder, of Ikawai, was among those at the ceremony.
Mr McKenzie said as the letter from Ms Carberry, now back in Ireland, was read out there was not a dry eye in the room.
He heaped praise on everyone who attended the crash - the other Waimate volunteers, the Glenavy Volunteer Fire Brigade, St John and police.
''It was an honour, it was wonderful to get the recognition but there were all of the other guys there. It was just the fact that we were the silly ones who decided to go for a polar swim.''
Mr Sandri's extension cord is back in use on Upper Clutha building sites, albeit with a ''bit of history'' behind it.
