In a creek without a paddle was where Sawyers Bay resident Russell Dawe ended up on his way to work yesterday morning.
Mr Dawe was reversing his Mazda station wagon down his Hall Rd driveway about 7.20am when the vehicle veered right and dropped off a bridge.
Its back wheels ended up in a shallow creek about 2m below the concrete bridge, on which the front wheels remained.
Mr Dawe scrambled out the driver's door and on to the car roof to escape.
His wife, who was in the front passenger seat, managed to get out of the vehicle with assistance from neighbours.
The crash gave Mr and Mrs Dawe a shock, but they were not injured.
''Luckily, a bit of wood off the fence got stuck under the tow bar, which stopped us from going back even further. And last week, with all the rain, the creek was roaring, so it was also lucky it had dropped down to about one foot of water,'' Mr Dawe said.
The Port Chalmers volunteer fire brigade attended the incident and helped clear away a tree so the car could be towed out of the creek.
Mr Dawe said his vehicle was not too badly damaged.
''It was actually driveable. If we had tipped right over, it would have been a different story.''
He was not sure whether he accidentally put his foot on the accelerator, instead of the brake, when he felt the car veer right while reversing.
''It was out of gear, and maybe I put my foot on the clutch, or on the accelerator by mistake.''
Mr Dawe took the day off work to recover.
''It gave us a bit of a fright, especially because it was still dark when it happened, so we couldn't see much,'' he said.
