A shark, a penguin and a bloke on a bike with a backpack and a wine box - all part of an epic tale of survival made possible by a huddle of humans.
Two weeks ago, hikers found a mauled tawaki, or Fiordland crested penguin, that had washed onto Monro beach in South Westland and was cooking in the hot sun.
It is the third rarest of the species.
One of walkers kept the penguin shaded while the other dashed back to the road where there was cell coverage and called the Department of Conservation (DOC).
The DOC called Dr Gerry McSweeney from the Wilderness Lodge Lake Moeraki.
McSweeney told Checkpoint he put all of his tasks and meetings aside and cycled down, which he says was quicker than a 45-minute walk to the beach.
"First of all, I grabbed a couple of stout leather gloves and a backpack, because I thought well I can tuck it in there and if it has survived, we'll bring it back."
He says it had lacerations across its back and was bleeding from its feet.
"The front part of it was very perky, so clearly it had had an injury, either [from] a shark or it was bashed against the rocks, and [I thought] if we could sort that out, it did have a future."
He took the penguin on his bike back to the lodge, and together with the help of the West Coast community, the penguin was able to receive expert care.
McSweeney asked a tourism expert from Development West Coast, Geoff Marks, to give the penguin a ride to a DOC team.
"He said I'd love to do it [take the penguin]. We found a big Grey Wacke sauvignon box, it was a bigger wine box than the normal ones and it meant the penguin could stretch out. Geoff drove to Fox [Glacier], there he was met by ... the Department of Conservation team."
One of the workers in the DOC's Jobs for Nature programme was a Glacier Shuttles worker and drove the penguin 160km to Hokitika Airport.
"There it was put on the first Air New Zealand plane to Christchurch where the Christchurch Wildlife Hospital is," McSweeney said.
"It was kind of funny because at the airport it was put into a special wildlife box called 'Kiwis for kiwis', which is normally used for transporting kiwis around, but it did the job for this penguin."
About 10 days ago when it reached the hospital, the vets found it to be malnourished and half its normal weight. McSweeney thought it had a 50-50 chance of survival.
"When it had been at the Wilderness Lodge, it actually had swum in the pond and done a lot of drinking so clearly that had helped because it was dehydrated."
On 1 December, it was operated on to stitch up the lacerations where it had been bitten on its back.
"Then [the surgeon] sewed up its feet and put these goregous little green booties on it and as of yesterday, it was eating fish like a little pig and looking really good."
The hospital decided to call the penguin Gerry.
"So in about perhaps a month's time, [when it's] fully recovered, we hope we can put it back into Monro beach and it will swim south to between New Zealand and the Antarctic where all the rest of its fellow penguins spend seven months feeding and sleeping on the water."
