Rescuers used a firefighter's coat as a makeshift harness to rescue two hunting dogs that fell down a 12-metre shaft while chasing a pig near Takaka.
The inventive rescue occurred on Sunday evening at Takaka Hill between Takaka and Motueka.
The two dogs slipped down the vertical shaft, along with the pig they were chasing just before 3pm.
The pig died, but the dogs survived and were able to be found by their owners who had them fitted with tracking collars.
"They could hear them barking from down the bottom of the shaft, so they were very, very lucky they were found," says Nelson senior station officer Gavin Scott.
It took 40 minutes for Mr Scott and others from the Nelson station to walk to the shaft after being called by the SPCA.
A rescuer was lowered into the 12-metre deep shaft to find the dogs waiting patiently for help.
Mr Scott says they've "never had a rescue like this before", so had to think outside the box.
"We ended up wrapping them up in a firefighter's bunker coat, which is part of the firefighter's uniform, putting the front legs through the sleeves," says Mr Scott.
"Then we put a 'working-at-heights' harness around them and tied them up as best as we could.
"It was something different - that's for sure."
Mr Scott says the dogs couldn't have been more cooperative.
"They were really placid - I think they were just quite pleased to be back up."
The owners were rightly pleased too.
"Being pig dogs they can get knocked around a bit and one of them just had $1000 spent on it just a couple of weeks ago, so they were very glad to have them back again."
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