New video shows aftermath of rescue when Amanda Eller, missing 17 days, found in Maui forest
After spending 17 days in a Maui forest, Amanda Eller got a chance to thank the people who never gave up on her.
"I'm just a girl that got lost in the woods," she said at a celebration Monday. "You guys showed up hard. This is, like, true aloha."
New video shows the moments on Friday when Eller was taken to an ambulance after being rescued from the Makawao Forest Reserve.
"Oh my God, is it good to see you!" a rescuer can be heard telling Eller.
Eller was found near a waterfall after volunteers in a helicopter spotted her wedged in a ravine. A friend, Javier Cantellops, happened to be in that helicopter.
Cantellops described the jubilant moment he rappelled down within an earshot of Eller.
"I'm like, 'Do you recognize this voice?' And she goes, 'Javier?' 'You're d*** right it is. I've been searching for you for 16 days!'"
Eller had a fractured leg and a skin infection. The volunteers helped her into the basket and airlifted her to safety.
The 35-year-old yoga instructor, originally from Wilmington, North Carolina, has lived in Hawaii for four years and is an avid hiker. Friends said they did not find it unusual that her belongings had been found in her car with the key hidden under the tire, as that was her routine when going for a hike. A week after her disappearance, her boyfriend, Benjamin Konkol, expressed a firm belief that she was somewhere in the woods and still alive.
After her rescue, Eller said she survived on berries, plants, moths and guavas. She reportedly spent one night in the den of a wild boar for shelter. At one point, a flash flood swept away her shoes.
WATCH: Amanda Eller describes losing hope after 14 days, how she persevered
At the celebration on Monday -- her first public appearance since the rescue -- Eller expressed gratitude that her loved ones and the hundreds of volunteers kept the search going.
"These guys weren't going to give up on me!" she said. "Thank God!''
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Maui woman missing for more than 2 weeks in forest released from hospital
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