Peter Bradbury had a broken pelvis, among other injuries, and couldn't reach his phone to call for help.

After being blown off a ladder by 14,000 volts, Peter Bradbury used his hands and chin to claw almost a kilometre home.

Once there, the 82-year-old spent days crawling around his Waikato house on his stomach, unable to walk or reach the phone to call for help.

No one is exactly sure how long the self-confessed recluse, who lives alone, spent without food or water.

CHRISTEL YARDLEY/FAIRFAX NZ Peter Bradbury waited six to eight days for help at his Te Aroha home.

Bradbury thinks it was eight days. His wife said information from neighbours indicates he was there for six.

"I was pretty much exhausted," Bradbury said from his Waikato Hospital bed 10 days after he was found. "I kept scratching away and would then fall asleep. I was just trying to get comfortable.

"Wherever I was on the floor, I would fall asleep."

It was by chance that a mate, a hunter out in the bush at the back of Bradbury's Te Aroha property, popped in to to say hello on the afternoon of April 10.

"I was quite relieved. Wow, it didn't get much better than that," Bradbury said. "I was getting hungry and bloody dry.

"It seems strange that no one would visit, but it is somewhere off the beaten track."

Bradbury lives by himself on the 60-hectare block at the base of the Kaimai Ranges on the Te Aroha-Gordon Rd, while his wife spends time with family in Kawhia.

He was out pruning poplar trees that overhang power lines at the ridge line of the property when the cord hit the live lines, shocking him at 14,000 volts in light rain.

"It must have been the branch that caught the lopper cord and pulled it down to the hot wire -14,000 volts, that's a shock. I don't recommend it to anybody."

The impact blew Bradbury metres off a forestry ladder on to the ground. He lost consciousness and awoke to find himself with a fractured pelvis and broken ribs.

"Something must have roused me to start breathing again. My lungs had gotten flattened and I was struggling to breathe.

"You only have so much adrenaline, so I thought I'd better scarper."

Bradbury could only drag himself along. He clawed his way over "bumpy" ground back home.

"I could only surf on the ground."

By the time he reached the house, it was dark and his fingers ached and his chin was grazed. He managed to find a stick and pushed it up to force the ranch slider door open, then dragged himself inside.

He spent days in pain and in and out of consciousness, unable to reach water or food.

Attempts to reach his mobile phone, which was charging on a shelf, were thwarted by the pain in his fractured pelvis.

"I suppose if you know you have to tough it out, you tough it out. I sort of scratched my way around, gripping on whatever I could.

"My aim was to get to the cellphone on the ledge in the kitchen. About eight days later, I still hadn't reached the cellphone.

"As soon as I tried to get elevation off the floor, it was agonising, so I would quit, exhausted."

Outside the home, Bradbury's border collie Chloe ran around, yelping to get inside.

"She wanted to know what was going on, but couldn't get into the house. She would circuit the house, wondering why I wouldn't show at the front door."

Bradbury held out hope that someone would come to tell him the sack of wheat he ordered had been delivered to the end of the drive.

"People don't often drop in there, I have to admit. I hadn't collected it, so I thought [someone] would say, hey, there is something wrong here."

It was the hunter he credits as "one hell of a brilliant guy" who saved him.

"It was a top-notch effort, that."

Waikato Westpac Rescue helicopter staff responded to the call on the Sunday and picked up Bradbury from the base of the ranges. Pilot Grant Bremner said he was badly dehydrated and had serious fractures. He was flown to Waikato Hospital and admitted to the high dependency unit. He's since been transferred to a ward.

"I just saw the blades of the chopper going around," Bradbury said. "They are so valuable in cases like that."

He wanted to thank the helicopter and hospital staff.

And he has advice for others who live alone: "Leave the ladder in the shed."