More than half a century elapsed, but Dominique Vallette ultimately experienced the South Island scenic destinations on her itinerary after leaving Punakaiki’s Pancake Rocks during the winter of 1972.
Then an 18-year-old on a study trip from her temporary home in New Caledonia, the Frenchwoman’s travel plans went awry when the Morris Mini she was driving slid off a gravel bend on the Haast Pass towards Wanaka and plunged 60 metres down a bank.
She was freed from the wreckage and then endured a watchful two-day trip to Christchurch Hospital where she spent three months in traction with spinal injuries.
Vallette returned to New Zealand last month for a six-week trip which enabled her to take in Wanaka, Glenorchy, Kinloch, Queenstown, Arrowtown, Doubtful Sound, Twizel and Aoraki Mt Cook.
“I’m glad I’ve seen them this time, finally,” she said.
Seeing the smiling faces of a surgeon and staff who nursed her in ward 13B, plus a woman whose family accommodated Vallette during convalescence, was the truly unforgettable memory.
“This is a celebration I’ve been thinking of for many years. The main purpose of the trip was to come back to New Zealand to try and find the kind and talented people without whom I would never have had a normal life,” she said.
“There was a team of kindness and love around me, really a family, and I never forgot that.”
Her plan for a reunion reached fruition when she hosted a gathering with surgeon Dr Allan Bean, ward sister Beth Spiers, nurse Sue Ryan (née Osborne) and Rosemary Kraushaar (née Doherty).
Once released from hospital, she stayed with the Doherty family, who learned of her plight because a relative, amateur (ham) radio operator Arnold Dacombe, had contacted Valette’s parents in Noumea after the accident.
“There was the physical part of it (hospital treatment) and for the mental and spiritual part of it I was always kept in very high spirits by the Dohertys. They were so kind and patient,” she said.
While Rosemary was at the function, her mother Helen, now aged 93, also met Vallette.
Vallette presented her Canterbury family with a special souvenir mug.
The same design, devised by one of her three sons, was framed and presented to the unit, which relocated from Christchurch Hospital in 1979.
“The fern is a symbol for New Zealand, and it also looks like a spine,” Vallette explained.
“It is also like a staircase because I was on my way to recovery, on my way up to having a good life.”
Before the afternoon tea Vallette had a private consultation with Bean, a junior member of her treatment team.
“She is lucky she broke the second lumbar vertebrae (L2) rather than the first,” he said, explaining damage to the L2 would not drastically impact on the spinal cord.
Vallette suffered severe bruising and nerve damage; she was able to walk from hospital with only a back brace for support after avoiding life as a paraplegic by millimetres.
“She’s very lucky it was below L1. When it’s damaged it usually crushes the spinal cord and she’d probably be in a wheelchair.”
Now 90, still sharp and living in a Wigram retirement complex, Bean was told about Vallette’s trip by another resident.
A friend also alerted Ryan, a student nurse whose rotation coincided with Vallette’s treatment.
“It was very confronting (starting in the unit). I was quite traumatised for the first week, seeing these lovely young people coming into the ward and realising what their future was going to be,” she said.
So Vallette’s positivity and resilience was a welcome coping mechanism.
“She was a perfect patient, she was so relaxed. She was not afraid of what might happen.
“We had a lovely rapport with each other. It was a busy ward so often I’d go after my shift and spend time with her.
“I played a little bit of guitar in those days so we’d play Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, all those songs.”
When, after three months in traction, Vallette felt a big toe twitch, doctors and physiotherapists thought the movement was a figment of a hopeful imagination.
“It was so exciting, I could see it. It proved the bruising and the nerves were healing,” she said.
“I’m just thrilled. Dominique stayed over the other night. We just reminisced about old times. We can’t believe 50 years have gone by in a flash.”
Vallette, who turns 70 on May 1, started her trip in Auckland, reached Wellington in two days and then took the ferry to Picton, her journey south deliberately featuring another drive through Haast Pass.
Although the road has been modified since her accident, Vallette easily identified her crash scene.
“I found the precise place where I left the road. It’s the only place where there is that kind of curve, not far from the Makarora River,” she said.
There was no parking bay in the vicinity so Vallette was unable to stop to take a photograph, though the bend is clearly etched in her mind.
“I was driving and I recognised it straight away, it was near the end of the Haast Pass. I think there were two Americans who met their deaths also in that precise place a few years ago. The road is much better now,” she said.
“It’s a sealed road which has been widened and there’s a railing on the ravine side.”
Vallette admitted there was some anxiety as she headed down the pass.
“I was quite anxious at first but when I saw it (the crash scene) I didn’t even feel a pang.
“I thought: ‘Well at least the road is very secure now, it won’t happen again’.”
