Wellington  - A 26-year-old New Zealander was recovering Sunday after spending 24 hours swept out to sea by a storm when his jetski broke down.

Nathan Maclure was picked up 13 kilometres off the coast of the South Island on Saturday evening when a Russian trawler came across him in what police described as the "good luck story of the year."

Maclure, who took his jetski out for a spin Friday in a river estuary, survived two severe storms that pelted him with hail and was menaced by three sharks, attracted by jellyfish swimming underneath him.

He fell off his jetski twice before he managed to rope himself to it and told the Sunday Star-Times, "I was really scared."

Nobody reported him missing, and he credited his survival to his wetsuit and the eagle-eyed lookout on the trawler Ivan Golubets, which was on its way to the port of Lyttleton. (dpa)