It was a hot summer day full of promise for two young Wanaka women in holiday mode.
Katrina McGarvie had driven round to pick up her half-sister Jamie Chapman and the pair left in the afternoon for Lake Hawea, excited about the New Year's rock concert taking place that Saturday evening.
The pair were in good spirits and looking forward to catching up with a group of friends camping at the lake as they approached the twisting, narrow incline where State Highway 6 heads over Maungawera Hill.
They never saw the concert. They never even made it to the top of the hill.
The dark green Mitsubishi ‘‘seemed to come out of nowhere'' around a sweeping right-hand bend, heading south, and on a collision course with 22-year-old Ms McGarvie's black Nissan Bluebird.
‘‘It came straight at us and everything seemed to slow down as it got closer and closer,'' Ms Chapman (22) said.
‘‘Smoke started pouring out from the car's tyres and I could hear the brakes and see the guy behind the wheel.
‘‘Kat tried to pull over to the left, but he kept following us. I remember swearing and then the car hit us.''
Ms McGarvie looks at her sister, who was in the passenger seat at the time of the accident, and shakes her head.
She says she can remember ‘‘hardly anything'' of the head-on car-crash, which turned their summer holidays upside down, and left them both with injuries which still affect them, almost four months on.
Ms Chapman said she knew exactly what was going to happen when the car ‘‘popped up'' over the ridge and ‘‘everything slowed down as it got closer and closer,
‘‘I shut my eyes and kept them shut, because I didn't know how bad things were going to be. I remember I couldn't breathe and was worried about how Kat was.
‘‘When I opened them there was glass everywhere. One of the first things I saw was the guy getting out of the car that hit us. He looked awful and had blood everywhere,
‘‘I still wish I had never seen that sight,''
Emergency services who arrived at the scene soon after the crash were confronted by a scene of broken glass, twisted metal, tyre marks, and three bloodied, injured accident victims.
An Israeli tourist managed to make it out of his rental car and was treated for head injuries by ambulance staff, who soon whisked him away to the Wanaka Medical Centre.
Ms McGarvie and Ms Chapman were not so fortunate and spent the next hour or more being treated by paramedics at the scene, as the hot summer sun blazed above them.
Ms McGarvie lay trapped in the wreckage of her car as fire rescue crew and paramedics worked to free her from the twisted metal and examine her injuries.
‘‘All the glass freaked me out. There was a lot of blood and my arm wouldn't work. The seat belt had been ripped out of the pillar above my shoulder and my legs were trapped under the dash,
‘‘The main thing I remember is the firemen talking to me, telling me what they were going to do [to cut me out] and trying to help me.
‘‘ Everything was a blur really.''
The two young women were taken by ambulance to the Wanaka Medical Centre, where they met their distraught parents.
After a brief examination and X-rays, they were airlifted to Dunedin Hospital by rescue helicopter.
Around the same time as a 5000 strong crowd of concert-goers got their New Year holiday celebrations under way, Ms McGarvie and Ms Chapman were undergoing respective treatments for a broken leg, twisted knee, a broken wrist, broken ribs, a broken toe, and severe lacerations and contusions caused by the seat belts they were both wearing.
While the pair concede their seat belts saved both their lives, the safety device left them with permanent scarring and a physical reminder about the traumatic experience of what was supposed to be a fun-filled summer evening.
The painful experience of the two half-sisters is a brutal reminder of the damage inflicted on unsuspecting roadusers by drivers who cross the centre line.
Otago rural highway patrol chief officer Sergeant Cameron Sigley said a continual traffic campaign targeting the dangerous practice of cornercutting, centre-line crossing, and driving on the wrong side of the road, has been stepped up this week.
An average of 13 drivers an hour were caught committing offences during a recent blitz on motorists driving on highways through the Manuka, Cromwell and Kawarau gorges.
Sgt Sigley said the campaign was not aimed at tourists driving on the wrong side of the road, with driving offenders in the recent blitz split ‘‘fairly evenly,'' between international visitors and local drivers.
However, because of the popularity of Central Otago as a tourist destination, the region tended to have a ‘‘significantly higher'' proportion of drivers who were ‘‘not necessarily'' prepared or familiar with New Zealand driving conditions and road rules.
Traffic statistics compiled from 2007 showed there were 147 road accidents in the Southern District, which involved vehicles crossing the centre line, or driving on the wrong side of the road.
There were three fatal crashes in the district which involved vehicles failing to keep left. The issue of tourists ignoring New Zealand road rules was problematic, Sgt Sigley said.
Educating tourist drivers was the key, but ensuring that the message got home to them was another matter, he said.
‘‘There's no secret we've got issues with tourist drivers, who are disproportionately represented in terms of our enforcement, but these campaigns are aimed at the protection and betterment of the roads for everyone''.
Last year, a total of 122 overseas drivers were involved in road accidents across the Southern District. These were split into four licence groups: immigrant (6), students (8), unknown (13) and visitor (95).
The Southern District statistics of 122 comprise 24% of New Zealand's total number of accidents involving overseas drivers, which numbered 506 during 2007.
Ms McGarvie thought there were more tourists on New Zealand roads who did not know their road rules than there were drunk drivers.
Both Ms McGarvie and Ms Chapman said more needed to be done about overseas drivers and the threat their uneducated driving posed to other roadusers.
However, they were unsure about what measures could be implemented to address the situation. Since their accident, both had become more aware of problem driving - and not just by tourists.
‘‘Every time I drive now, I notice someone doing something stupid,'' one said.
The sisters said their scars and injury side-effects had left them both self-conscious of their body image.
Although they both suffered from flashbacks after the traumatic experience and their rehabilitation had been ‘‘hard work'' the pair were focused on the positive side of life ahead of them.
The two sisters had been skydiving and now tried to seize each opportunity before them, because they realised ‘‘how short life can be, so you've got to make the most of it''.
Both women said they bore no grudge against the Israeli tourist who smashed into them, but wished more had been done to hold him accountable.
A $150 fine issued to motorists caught during the recent Manuka, Cromwell, and Kawarau gorges blitz was ‘‘not enough''.
Ms McGarvie, who underwent surgery for her injuries, said if it was a local driver who caused their accident she felt they would have probably gone to jail, but the tourist was able to ‘‘just hop on a plane'' and return home.
An Israeli man was convicted of careless driving causing injury as a result of the accident and a fine was imposed.
‘‘It would have been nice to get an apology letter, or something, but it is something he will have to live with for the rest of his life,'' Ms Chapman said.
‘‘He's probably got all the punishment he'll ever need.''
