Frontman of Kiwi band Opshop Jason Kerrison says he is "grateful to be alive" after hitting some cattle on State Highway 1 in the Far North last night.
Kerrison said in a post online he was driving north on SH1 heading into the Mangamukas when cattle appeared in front of his car "with absolutely no warning".
"One second the road was clear. The next second they were there. It felt like they had suddenly come straight out from the side of the road or the bush - I honestly don’t know exactly where they came from because it happened so fast," he wrote.
The 49-year-old said he was travelling at around 100km/h, and said "there was simply no time to react. Within a fraction of a second I was on them."
"I hit one of the cows, which appeared to die on impact, and from what I can piece together the vehicle carried it another 20 or 30 metres before I ended up being thrown into the bank."
Writing the post from Kaitaia Hospital, he shared images of his wrecked car in the ditch, writing that he "genuinely thought, this is it".
Kerrison said he checked himself over, and found "there was blood coming from a laceration on my arm, but my legs were working, everything seemed to be moving, and incredibly I was able to get myself out of the vehicle" to call emergency services.
He added that the damage to the car was "pretty confronting".
"The front of the Santa Fe was absolutely destroyed. There was glass everywhere through the passenger side of the cabin and across the passenger seat, yet somehow I had no glass on me and no cuts from it. There was cow blood throughout parts of the vehicle, over some of my clothing and a little on me," he wrote.
"Between the airbags, the seatbelt, the engine bay and the structure of that Santa Fe, I genuinely believe that vehicle saved my life."
He said it was unclear why the livestock were wanding on the dark state highway in the middle of the night, and that made him "incredibly angry".
In the lengthy statement he also thanked police and his family, saying "I don't know exactly what protected me last night... whatever it was: thank you."
"For a fraction of a second last night I genuinely believed I was never going to see any of them again. I've never felt anything quite like that."
Opshop first gained commercial radio's attention in 2004, going on to release its debut album which went platinum, while their second album went three-times platinum.
Their third and final album Until the End of Time also hit No.1 following its release in 2010.
The 2007 hit Maybe peaked at Number 3 on New Zealand's charts.
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