Lucky escape for quartet

Four Queenstown people heading to Nelson last weekend were lucky to escape with only minor injuries when the 4WD vehicle they were travelling in was in a collision with a campervan near Franz Josef on the West Coast.

Dan Trachtenberg, Joseph Cowie, Caleb Cowie and Emily Adamson (pictured at right) were nursing bumps and bruises after the accident but the vehicle, loaned to them by a Queenstown friend, Deni Bevan, was badly damaged last Saturday.

"My truck may be written off but I still have my friends," Mr Bevan said when contacted.

Ms Adamson, the Queenstown Times freelance photographer, said the Franz Josef locals looked after the quartet "exceptionally well", and Joseph and Caleb, who comprise the Black Planet band, played to a packed house at the Blue Ice bar.