A Wellington woman's urban exploration plans went awry after she fell down a hole and became trapped at the bottom, leaving her friend to sing her through the terror.
Aleisha Wadsworth was exploring an old church at the top of Mt Victoria on Saturday with two friends when disaster struck. She fell through a plywood covered hole, and became trapped.
Luckily for her, Seni Iasona was there for comfort.
Iasona told Newshub he and a friend, Joletta Goodall, had accompanied Wadsworth on the exploration. The three were looking around two abandoned properties when Wadsworth decided to lead the group down the hill.
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"We heard a crack and this thump and then she just started screaming but we couldn't find her," he told Newshub through laughter.
Once he had located his now subterranean friend, Iasona realised there wasn't much he could do to get her out. He called the fire brigade after realising he couldn't get her out himself.
"I couldn't pull her out myself and Joletta was saying she didn't want to come down in case she slipped too, so I just started filming."
In a video supplied to Newshub, Iasona can be heard comforting his friend as she screams for help.
"Just - just stay calm," he tells her from the safety of the ground above.
"Actually no, be more dramatic because then they'll come faster," he adds.
Wadsworth takes her cue beautifully and wails in dismay.
"Just think of it as the Survivor challenge - but this is for your life not money," he continues.
Wadsworth wails that she's slipping, and Iosonsa is struck by genius.
"Let's sing a song," he tells his sobbing friend before breaking into a stunning rendition of 'Slipping Through my Fingers' by ABBA.
He is interrupted by more crying from the hole.
After a brief pause to tell her "everything happens for a reason", he continues to sing to her as sirens can be heard in the background.
Reassuring his friend that the fire brigade is on its way to remove her from the hole, Iasona continues to serenade his sobbing friend.
"She kept going on about slipping so I knew I needed to think of a song about slipping," he said on Sunday.
But it wasn't slipping that was causing Wadsworth to scream and cry in terror.
"There were all of these huge spiders just staring at her down there," said Iasona.
"As soon as she got pulled out there was a giant spider on her, so that set her off again."
But he says she didn't stay traumatised - as soon as the spider was removed Wadsworth attempted to go and explore further around the property.
"We were like 'absolutely not' but she just went off to go look by herself! So we stood and just rewatched the video in hysterics."
He says Wadsworth had a few bruises, but no serious injuries.
Newshub.
