A spot of furry black and white appears among the jagged rocks of New Zealand’s alpine backcountry. It is Molly the border collie, sitting near the foot of a waterfall where she had been separated from her owner one week earlier.

Molly was rescued on Tuesday after an avalanche of donations from the public funded a volunteer team made up of former helicopter pilots and crew to mount a search in the wilderness.

Molly had been missing since 24 March, when her owner, Jessica Johnston, tumbled down a 55-metre drop, while on a hike. Johnston was seriously injured and rescued by helicopter, but her dog was nowhere to be seen.

The chances of finding the border collie were slim given the remote location of the accident on the Campbell Range in the Arahura Valley, in the West Coast region of New Zealand’s South Island. But Lillian Newton, of Precision Helicopters, said she had “a gut feeling” that Molly was still alive.

The small family business wanted to help, Newton said, but did not have the budget to fund a private search, with helicopters costing about $50 a minute to run. While search and rescue efforts are regularly commissioned for humans in the area, there is no official funding to rescue animals lost in the New Zealand wilderness.

“We rang Jess and made sure she was okay for us to put it to the public,” Newton said. “The goal was to get $2,400 and some volunteers that were experienced to come along.”

Within eight hours, they had raised $11,500 from “complete strangers across New Zealand” and were able to close donations. Then, a plan was crafted.

Newton described the southern alps, where Molly went missing, as “extremely remote, rough, bushy and wet.” But they had a team of well-trained professionals ready to pivot their human search-and-rescue skills to a canine mission.

A volunteer named Georgia flew in from Christchurch with thermal imaging gear. Wayne, a helicopter crewman by trade, also volunteered, bringing along his Jack Russell, Bingo, for emotional support in case Molly was frightened. Newton’s father, Matt, a former rescue helicopter pilot, flew the mission.

“They went directly to the spot where the owner, Jessica, had fallen. And much to our surprise, Molly was there,” Lillian Newton said.

The rescue team theorised that Molly may not have fallen down the waterfall with Johnston, but had spent the week slowly heading towards the last spot she had been.

It was a “challenging little spot,” Lillian Newton said. Molly was stranded at the foot of the waterfall, surrounded by sharp, mossy rocks and spraying mist.

Matt Newton hovered the helicopter low while Wayne climbed out. After offering Molly a bit of sausage, he picked up the dog up and carried it to the helicopter. Video of the rescue shows Molly being carried under Wayne’s arm, with Bingo tucked under the other.

None of the rescue team knew Johnston or Molly before the mission, but when the crew delivered the message that the dog had been found, the feeling was one of overwhelming joy.

“Someone told me that I would be ‘lotto lucky’ to find her, so for it all to pay off is just amazing,” Lillian Newton said.

She said that while Johnston was lucky that the water broke her fall, she suffered a split elbow, was bruised from head to toe, and had been dealing with the heartbreak of not knowing Molly’s fate.

“I’d say she’ll heal up a lot better now,” Newton said.

In a Facebook post Johnston said it had been “a bloody rough week, but with both of us back home I can add this adventure to the list. Still a great trip before our lives got turned upside down.”