Leon Foster – barrier icon, founder of the Aotea Army, and a man known for mobilising locals to help neighbours in need – has come face to face with the wreckage of the Freelander that nearly killed him.
“This is the Landy. First time we’ve seen it since,” he says in a raw moment, recorded during a trip to Claris. “She’s real crushed in… f****’ hell.”
The Land Rover Freelander was flattened nearly beyond recognition when it flipped three times and plunged 20 metres off a cliff on Puriri Bay Rd earlier this month. Only the space around the driver and passenger seats remained intact – a narrow miracle.
“The roof come down there. It’s like… lucky it was on one side. If I’d been in the middle, my head would’ve got crushed.”
Foster, 51, was five minutes from home after leaving the social club when the crash happened. He came to in the passenger seat, bleeding heavily from the head and unable to move from severe internal injuries. His phone had flown from the vehicle. The tide began to rise around his ankles.
He waited ten hours before a jogger heard his cries for help from the other side of the bay. Local friends – including emergency responders from the island’s fire brigade and police – were some of the first on the scene.
Foster had to be winched out by rescue helicopter, suffering from internal bleeding that doctors say could have taken his life within hours.
Now back on the island and recovering, Foster is walking gingerly and reliant on medication. “I’ve come down to the chemist… while we’re in town in this area, I thought I’d take a look,” he said, standing in front of the wreck. “that’s f*****.”
Leon Foster is a familiar face across Great Barrier. His “Aotea Army” is an informal volunteer crew that helps locals with jobs around the house, gardens, and emergency needs – a community-first initiative that’s earned him deep respect on the motu.
Now, the man who spent years helping others narrowly avoided a fatal end in the moana. “Oh well,” he says, looking at the wreckage. “Praise the Lord.”
