Lilian Ip doesn’t drink, but she has wine and lollies to thank for her survival in the Victorian bushland for five days.
Last Sunday, Ms Ip, who was on holiday in the town of Bright, had planned a day trip around the state’s high country near Mitta Mitta, about 400km north east of Melbourne. She had only limited snacks in her car and no water.
A bottle of wine that Ms Ip had bought to give her mother as a gift ended up providing hydration while she waited to be rescued, police said.
“After being lost in the bush for five days, she was extremely relieved and grateful to see us and we were just as happy to see her,” Victoria Police Wodonga Sergeant Martin Torpey said.
“While she couldn’t move her car, she was able to use the heater overnight to give her some warmth,” he said.
Ms Ip said she thought she wouldn’t survive.
“I thought I was going to die out there,” she told Nine News.
“My whole body shut down on Friday.”
“I’m just sitting there thinking, ‘what am I going to do, how am I going to survive this?'” she said.
“I was about to give up.”
She was overjoyed to hear the helicopter overhead the next day.
Police were alerted of her disappearance when she failed to make a daily call to loved ones on Sunday.
“She used great common sense to stay with her car and not wander off into bushland,” Sergeant Torpey said.
She was found by the helicopter crew 60 km from the nearest town, and a police van was sent to pick her up.