Hawaii streams , on the volcanoes , go thru an endless series of waterfalls and drops . Some tens of feet , some hundreds . They are spectacular ( from the air ) but nearly impossible to follow down otherwise and that is exactly what happened to her; she was on such a stream and came t an impossible drop , which had she attempted , she would have died . She had already fractured her tibia attempting to climb down a smaller fall . She found good water and an open stream bed and held up for rescue . Good call . Had it rained hard that stream gulch would have flash flooded and she would have been done for . High water can come up in a very short time here in Hawaii . I have a fair amount of backcountry wilderness experience here myself .
Another thing is she was lucky she didn’t encounter a large pig herd on those off trail trails she was walking . :igs are smart , they would easily see she was by herself , had no weapons and no dogs . Then to a pig , a small defenseless human becomes a food source . They can really mess you up , and they will eat you . All of you , without remainder . People talk about people ‘disappearing’ in Hawaii’s forests , it’s not pot growers , it’s the pigs . Trust me , I know .
Maui is not that big.I’d bet you could crawl across the entire island in 17 days.