After taking the wrong turn the woman hiked over 10km of very challenging terrain in the dark until she reached a farmhouse.

Her journey was a hard one that took over 5 hours and Constable Blair Duffy, of Queenstown said that she was “Very, very lucky that she was strong enough to keep going".

She had to negotiate fences and bluffs and she was even chased by a herd of Hereford bulls. After several falls the woman was also cut and bruised but is believed to only have been distressed and emotionally drained after her ordeal and is expected to make a complete recovery.

Her husband called the services and a ski patrol was sent out to locate her but failed to do so. A helicopter was later sent up but again failed to find her, and the police were about to launch a search and rescue mission when they received a call letting them know the missing woman had turned up.

The woman would be going back to Coronet Peak to talk to the staff "to go through where she's come unstuck, so it doesn't happen again", Const Duffy said.

Source: Otago Daily Times